Let me forget (edited version)
by Mikan787
Summary: All the hunters have been invited to another exam and Kurapika finds something he never would have seen coming...
1. Prologue

A/N: Honestly I had forgotten I hadn't posted this edited version until a few days ago and I was contemplating whether it had been too long or not but you know whatever I just decided to post it anyway :P This isn't a complete rewrite. I just fixed some grammatical errors (there might still be a little tho =.= haven't touched this in months... I'm sorry) I struggle with tense so the biggest change would be the change from past tense to all present tense. I have also changed a bit of the storyline in the later chapters but not anything big, it was just something I saw and realised was a little stupid so I changed it haha... I don't know why I felt the need to laugh... hiding my stupidity!

P.S. The word count is less because this will be the only author's note. Honestly the only reason I have decided to keep the original up was because I just wanted to keep my journey of sorts. I know it sounds weird but I just feel a range of emotions when I reread the original and see my author's notes. Gah! I don't even know, I'm just a weirdo, ignore me! On with the story!

(Also super excited the hunter x hunter hiatus is over!) *\\(^o^)/*

* * *

This is set between the chimera ant arc and the election. Let's just say Gon wasn't injured and netero didn't die

* * *

 **x Prologue x**

 _All the hunters from the last ten years have been invited to the 10-year exam. It is not compulsory to come but please keep in mind accidents do happen like losing your licence for instance or you name accidentally being placed on the black list, but those are just rare probabilities. Don't let it scare you. Hohoho!_

"Oi… that old man is just outright threatening us isn't he?" Killua says.

"Sounds like fun!" Gon says excitedly, ignoring his friend's negativity.

"Plus you heard what might happen if we don't attend…" Leorio adds.

"I guess you're right. Do you think Kurapika will go?"

"I hope so! It's been ages since we've seen him."


	2. Chapter 1: Reunion x and x Encounter

**Chapter 1: Reunion x and x Encounter**

"Wow! That building is so big!" Gon exclaims.

"Calm down Gon. I'm sure we've got the wrong place like last time. Now where's an unsuspecting, rundown shop…" Leorio says and starts looking around with suspicion.

"Actually Leorio we're at the right place."

All three turn around at hearing the familiar voice.

"Kurapika!"

"It's been so long!" Gon exclaims and races over to give him a big hug.

"I'm surprised you came."

"Well, I don't want to get into any _accidents_ ," Kurapika responds, purposely putting emphasis on the last word.

"Can you believe it's been two years since we passed the hunter exam."

"…Yeah." Kurapika had a solemn look on his face as he remembers everything that has changed since then.

"Ah! Sorry I forgot that-"

"Don't worry about it. I'm just focusing on retrieving all the eyes of my brethren nothing else…" Kurapika reassures his friends.

There was an awkward silence as everyone recalls their encounter with the Genei Ryodan in York shin. It was not a good memory for any of them, especially Kurapika.

"Well it's good to see you're moving on." Leorio says and puts his arm around his friend in an effort to comfort him. But he didn't get the result he wanted as Kurapika brushes him off almost immediately.

"Thanks, but I haven't forgotten about revenge. Collecting the eyes is just more important. Now can we please stop talking about this and go inside?"

"O-Of course!" They all agree and follow Kurapika into the building.

"Leorio what were you thinking!" Gon whispers or more like yells at Leorio when they got inside and hits him in the arm for emphasis on how stupid his comment to Kurapika really was.

"Ow! That hurt you brat!" Leorio responds and retaliates.

Kurapika watches as his two rowdy friends went at each other and a smile couldn't help but creep its way onto his face. It was nice to see that they haven't changed. It gave him a sense of nostalgia, which made him feel down again at the thought that he might lose them in the future like his clan.

"Don't worry we won't be dying anytime soon." Killua appears next to him.

"Huh?"

"You were thinking about losing us weren't you? Well don't worry Gon and I are not weak enough to get killed that easily. I don't know about the old man though."

"I heard that!" Both Killua and Kurapika turn around and saw their two friends puffed out on the floor from their fight.

"Thanks Killua. That makes me feel a lot better." Kurapika gives Killua a timid smile. Although it was little creepy how the little silver head knew what he was thinking… could he read minds?

"Hey guys! Did you miss the greatest ninja in the world?!" All heads tilt upwards towards the voice to spot the owner on the ceiling.

"Hanzo!" Gon jumps up to greet him.

"Hey Gon! I see you can jump higher than ever." Hanzo comments before jumping down the moment he would land at the same time as Gon.

"Isn't this nice! It's like a reunion of class 387!"

"Kukuku." An eerie laugh fills their ears.

Everyone froze as they heard the very creepy laugh and it was even creepier since none of them could see the psychotic magician.

"Aren't you guys forgetting someone?" A flurry of cards flew towards them and when they could open their eyes without fear of their eyes being gouged out, guess who appeared in front of them…

"Hisoka!" Everyone shouted in reunion.

"What are you doing here?"

"The same as you guys. I still need my licence for some jobs I had in mind, plus… this is a good chance to see my apples ripen. Kukuku."

Everyone feels a shiver run down their spine at the last part.

"…Is my brother with you?" Killua asks quietly as he cautiously scans the entire room for Illumi.

"Unfortunately no. He said it was a waste of time and that he would just kill anyone who gets in his way."

Killua gave out a sigh of relief at hearing that. "…That sounds like him."

"Eh hem. Well not including Killua's brother… now it's like-"

"Don't forget about Pokkle..." Hanzo interrupts.

All of them decide to give Pokkle a moment of silence… except for Hisoka, but he was still quiet.

"Just goes to show how much things can change in two years…" Kurapika had meant to say it only to himself but everyone ends up hearing it.

And more gloom…

"Come on guys! Don't be sad! This is supposed to be a happy time! Reunion yay!" To everyone's surprise it was Killua who tried to cheer them up. "A lot of good things happened as well you know!"

"Killua's right! Don't forget the good things like learning nen and getting stronger and-!"

"Leorio! I think everyone's good now and we're attracting a lot of attention from the others here." Kurapika cuts Leorio off and reminds him of their current surroundings.

Leorio pipes down and looks around the room and just like Kurapika said a lot of eyes were on them and the owner's faces did not look happy.

"Getting all excited over just learning nen."

"They must have just past last year."

"I bet they only know the basics."

The whole room was now filled with mocking laughter. Really they were starting to look like a bunch of schoolyard bullies. It's better to ignore them but it seems the rest of them weren't going to let those comments slide like Kurapika.

"Let's show them who just knows the basics," Killua suggests.

However before Killua could get started, Hisoka had already made the first move. He threw a razor sharp card at one of the offenders… or an innocent bystander… either way there was going to be a bloodbath. To everyone's surprise though, a teenage girl intervenes before any blood was spilt. She had managed to catch the card in between her index finger and middle finger.

"You guys are acting like a bunch of school kids!" The anonymous girl shouts and throws the card on the ground. "We're all hunters here who cares who passed the exams first, the possibility remains that one of them could be super strong, you never know!"

Everyone in the room just stares at her as she continues to rant on about how strength comes to those who try hard and other things like that. Nobody was really listening though, they were only curious about the person brave or stupid enough to interrupt a fight between hunters then lecture them afterwards and it wasn't a surprise that they were. The girl looked about 15 and was wearing pretty casual clothes for someone taking part in the exam. But it was apparent she was a skilled person with the way she caught Hisoka's card so easily. She was wearing a plain, white T-shirt, black skirt, a pink hoodie with sleeves long enough to cover part of her hands, black, thigh high socks and black, ankle high boots. She was what you would call a typical teenage girl that really didn't look like hunter material, but hunters then again you can't really judge hunters by appearances alone.

"Ok, I think they got the point." A different girl around the same age drags the girl out of the circle that was created when people had gotten closer to take a closer look.

"Maya let go! I'm not finished yet!" The girl flails around in her friend's grip.

"Yeah, yeah." Her friend utters, completely ignoring the girl.

The people part to let them through since they didn't want to get kicked by the girl thrashing while her friend drags her away.

"That was weird…"

"Looks like I found another apple kukuku."

A sweat drop runs down everyone's face at Hisoka's comment. ' _Good luck little girl.'_

"I feel like I've seen that girl before." Kurapika mumbles to himself.

"Eh? Kurapika you have?" Leorio questions Kurapika, as he had overheard.

"…Yeah." Kurapika replies while he tries to dig deeper into his brain.

"Oh! I know where you might've seen her!"

All heads turn to Hanzo.

"Where?"

"On TV! She looks a lot like the world famous idol Sakura-chan!"

"Wow Hanzo you seem really excited about this."

"Of course I am! She's originally from Japan!"

"So you think that was her?"

"No mistake! Her hair is normally up when she's performing and I never thought she would be a hunter but the pink hair and pink eyes, it's definitely her!" Hanzo's eyes lit up and looked almost like they were on fire.

"Um ok… anyway Kurapika I didn't think you were into that kind of thing."

"I'm not. But that does kind of explain why I thought she looked familiar… I could've seen her while I was travelling."

Although Kurapika came to accept that conclusion, something still didn't feel right… it felt like he was forgetting something really important…

"I'm going ask for an autograph!" The sudden outburst cut his train of thought. It came from Hanzo who somehow got out a notepad and pen from somewhere…

"An autograph from an idol… I could sell that!" With that thought in mind Leorio was on board as well.

 _'Seriously does that guy ever change?'_ Kurapika thought with a little amusement.

Both of them begin to head towards the direction where Sakura disappeared but before they could even take a step the microphone came on.

"Testing 1, 2… Ok."

Everyone focused their attention on the TV and as expected it was Beans who was addressing them.

"Thank you all for coming."

 _'Like anyone had a real choice.'_ Kurapika thought, which was what everyone was thinking as well.

"We will now commence the hunter 10-year exam. Please step into the main hall when the doors open."

The huge double doors opposite of the doors they came in from slowly opens. Everyone files into the room silently since no one knew what was going to happen once they walk through the doors. Nen auras can be felt all around, spiking up or calmly surrounding their users for protection.

Nothing happens as the gang walked through but as soon as the last person enters, the door slams shut and those like Kurapika who were on high alert had activated gyou and saw nen climbing up the walls and start covering the ceiling. The whole room was shaking so hard it was like a massive earthquake was occurring in the room. No one was shouting 'what's going on' or anything though. There was some looking around but other than that everyone seemed calm and ready to take on whatever was coming. Well it was to be expected. Everyone in the room was a professional hunter or by title anyway…

"What's going on?!" Trust Leorio to break the silence.

"Calm down Leorio. This is a hunter exam remember and one where everyone is already a hunter. Unexpected things are bound to happen." Kurapika attempts to calm down his friend who was freaking out. Really how on Earth is this guy considered a professional hunter?

"Kurapika's right so stop acting like a scared little girl you're making us look bad." Killua adds, unhelpfully.

"Who're you calling a scared little girl?!" Leorio retorts.

"Who do you think?"

"I'll show you who's the scared little girl-"

"Why is it that when someone needs to be called a coward the term _'little girl'_ is used? What's wrong with calling someone a scared little boy?" A different voice interrupts the argument. It sounded familiar, where did he hear that voice again.

"Ah you're!" Gon exclaims and points at the source.

All heads turned to the direction their friend was pointing in and standing there was none other than the girl who caused the scene earlier, her friend who dragged her away, who was currently fuming, and a boy who Kurapika assumed was another one of her friends.

"It's you! Can I get your autograph?" Hanzo pushes past her friend and presents the girl with the notepad and pen he got out earlier.

"Huh?" The girl tilts her head in confusion at the sudden request.

"You're the world famous idol Sakura-chan right?" Hanzo enquires eagerly.

"Pff! What? Of course not! I just… happen to look a lot like her! Haha…"

 _'Wow this girl was not good at lying…'_ Kurapika couldn't help but think.

Hanzo was about to say something back but before he could her friend shows up in between them and pushes him away from her.

"Back up buster!" The girl's friend warns Hanzo.

"Who are you?" Hanzo questions her looking really annoyed as she was in the way of him and his idol.

"The name's Maya and I don't like the way you're treating my friend," She introduces herself and continues to glare at Hanzo.

"What! I was just asking for an autograph," Hanzo retorts and glares right back at her.

"Exactly! She's a hunter now not an idol, so treat her like one."

"Maya you just gave me away!"

 _'Actually you gave yourself away first…'_

"Come on. Just one please!" He turns back to Sakura and shoving the pen and pad in her face while she was politely trying to turn him down, and at some point, Leorio had joined in.

"I think you guys should stop bothering her." Kurapika decides to intervene. "Sorry they're not exactly what you call normal," He apologises for his friends.

Sakura averts her attention away from the two and focuses on Kurapika.

"It's ok. I'm kinda used to it." Sakura assures Kurapika.

Sakura escapes from the huddle Hanzo and Leorio had created around her and walks up to Kurapika. At first she just stares at him without saying anything. He figured she was staring at his tribal outfit. It's not exactly what you call stylish but it was a symbol of his clan so he was proud to wear it. But after a while he notices that she was no longer looking at his outfit but rather him. She was staring right into his eyes. Kurapika tries to read what she might be thinking but her facial expression wasn't giving away anything. Her lips were set in a straight line and her eyes were devoid of any emotion. It looked like she was waiting for him to do something but he didn't know what.

"Um… so I'm Kurapika and you're… Sakura right?" Kurapika attempts to clear the air.

Kurapika's words seem to have snapped her out of whatever trance she was in _._ The light came back into her eyes, but she still stared at him a little bit more before blinking once, twice, then smiling.

"Yeah." Sakura replies with a forced smile, but Kurapika didn't notice.

What Kurapika did notice though was that Hanzo and Leorio was still at the same spot asking for an autograph… but Sakura's with him at the moment. Did they not know she was gone?

Sakura sees Kurapika looking toward the direction of the two and decides to answer his unspoken question.

"Don't worry, they haven't gone crazy. I made a copy of myself to stand there so they wouldn't notice I was gone." Sakura explains, before she snaps her fingers and the two crazed fans, well for Leorio it's greedy, seemed to have finally notice she wasn't there anymore.

"What happened?!"

"She just turned into a bunch cherry blossom petals!"

Hearing the outbursts Kurapika looks over to the spot he assumed she was standing and just like Hanzo had pointed out, all that was there was a pile of pink flower petals or cherry blossom petals as Hanzo had mentioned.

"It's easier for me to make something if I make it out of cherry blossoms than if I just make it straight out of thin air. I like to picture of the thing I want to create as a jigsaw puzzle and the petals are the pieces. " Sakura explains further. "Let me show you how I can create a gun."

Sakura holds out her hand and petals swirled around above the palm of her hand before slowly coming together. Kurapika could see how this process could be seen as a jigsaw puzzle. Soon the petals were transformed into a bunch of gears and pieces, which into were placed in their correct places, well he was assuming, since he didn't exactly know the total make up of a gun. After all the little pieces were put together the petals swirled around them to create the metal features that cover the inner workings of the gun so now it actually looks like a gun instead of a cluster of random mechanical pieces. The completed gun plops down onto the palm of her hand.

"For the record it doesn't actually take that long for me to make something but I just wanted to show you the process in slow mode so you'd get it." Sakura informs Kurapika while she twirls the gun in her hand.

"But doesn't it waste more time and energy if you do it this way?" Kurapika enquires.

"I guess it does but I have to for the things I make to come out right. See I need too make all the parts and know where they're supposed to go so it works."

"Wow…but-" Before Kurapika could even finish his sentence Sakura cuts him off.

"It's my ability so butt out!" Sakura puffs out her cheeks and glares at Kurapika although it wasn't very intimidating… until she pointed the gun at him.

 **Bang!**

There wasn't even a click before the bullet was fired so it really caught Kurapika off guard. He didn't have time to react but luckily she wasn't actually aiming to hit him, either that or she was just a bad shot. The bullet had only zipped past the side of Kurapika's head cutting only a few strands of hair.

"What was that for?! You could've killed me?!" To say the least Kurapika was stunned at the sudden act of violence.

"That's what you get for doubting me." Sakura answers as if it was the most obvious thing in the world before blowing the smoke off the gun. "By the way one of the perks of making your own weapon is that you can tweak it here and there to make it better." She straightens her right arm and drops the gun, which turned back into a pile of petals once it hit the ground before disappearing completely. "Bam!" She had a smug look on her face but then her friend taps her on the shoulder.

"Um… Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you hit somebody…"

"Pff I did… not."

She did. Apparently she didn't think about the people behind Kurapika and she probably should have because now there was a person lying on the floor groaning with a huge burn mark on their chest.

"…"

"That wasn't a normal bullet was it?" Kurapika questions Sakura with slight fear, as that could've been him.

"No it was not," Sakura confirms.

"And you shot that near my face!" Kurapika shouts in disbelief.

"Well to be fair you're not the first person to annoy me…" Sakura begins while averting her eyes away from Kurapika.

Before Kurapika could lecture her on how dangerous that is not only to others, but herself as well a speaker went off.

"Congratulations!" At the same time the announcement started a hole under appeared only under Sakura.

"Uh… oh…" Was all sakura was able to get out before gravity pulls her down into the hole and as soon as she was through it closed back up.

"Sakura!" Maya yells after her friend.

After not getting any response she gathers her nen to her right fist and punches the floor where Sakura had fallen through. The ground shatters and Maya was preparing to hit the floor again this time with her left fist but the floor begins to regenerate itself. All the broken pieces were going back to the hole Maya had created and was fixed completely before her other fist made contact. However that didn't stop her from pounding the floor in over and over again even though the floor kept regenerating again and again after each blow.

"Maya stop it! You're just wasting your time and energy!" Chase tries to hold her back and stop her from hurting herself.

"Chase let go! Didn't you just see what happened? I have to go save her!" Maya tries to struggle out of his grip.

"She doesn't… need…. saving!" Chase tries to assure tell her but it was really hard when the person you were trying to reason with was trying to smash your face in.

"What do you mean?" Maya stops struggling to listen what possible explanation Chase could have to support his statement.

Once Chase was sure that she wouldn't go berserk on the floor or him again. He points at the guy Sakura had accidently shot. Unlike last time the guy was just lying silently and unmoving on the floor.

"What about him?"

"Think about it. Before he was still moving but then you guys looked away because when Sakura and um… that guy." Chase gestures at Kurapika.

 _'That guy?'_ Kurapika was a little annoyed at the lack of manners but being the mature person he was he decides to… steal the guys thunder.

"The guy lost consciousness at the same time the announcement started and Sakura fell down the hole."

"…Right." To say the least Chase was not all that happy that Kurapika took his moment away from him but since he too was …mature he brushes it off with a smile and Kurapika smiles back as well. Although it was very clear that both of them were shooting daggers at each other even under a facade of smiles.

"…So basically the hole appearing under her and taking her away was a good thing because it means she passed the first phase." During their 'staring contest' Killua seemed to have grasped what they were saying and decides to steal the moment away from both of them.

"Hey I was going to tell them!" Kurapika and Chase yell in union. Killua just put on his cat face and smiles back at them.

 _'Smart idiots.'_ Was Maya's only thought as she watches the two sulk. She could never understand why some people make it their life goal to look smarter than another pushing aside the fact that she was a little annoyed she didn't realise it herself. _'But I was distracted! My best friend fell down a hole!'_ If anyone asks that's what she was going with.

While the group were talking and arguing amongst themselves they had forgotten that they were in a room with other people and that those people had overheard them… the whole room was soon a battlefield. Everyone in the room seemed to have figured out that the exam had already started and were aiming to pass the first phase. Auras went off like crazy all around, no one was planning to play around… well except a certain creepy magician. They watch as he crept up on his unsuspecting preys and cut off one of their heads clean off with a card. Poor guy never saw it coming. He was about to proceed with the others but the same thing happened. Like what happened with Sakura a hole appeared under Hisoka and it looks like this wasn't an ordinary hole. Unlike Sakura who just allowed the hole swallow her up, Hisoka tries to avoid it by attaching his bungee gum to a wall and pulling himself out of the way. What he didn't expect was the hole actually trying to suck him in and even Hisoka had a hard time getting free. Deciding that it wasn't worth the effort he deactivated his bungee gum and let the hole swallow him up with an "Oh well~" and that freaky smile of his plastered on his face.

"What just happened?" Leorio was the one to break the silence, as everyone was still stunned at what they had witnessed. They weren't so much stunned at the headless guy lying on the floor but at the fact that Hisoka was swallowed up by the hole.

"The hole must be there so people can't take out more than one person." Kurapika explains before Chase had the chance before turning to him and smirking. Chase was going to retort but seeing this Maya hit him over the head.

"We don't have time for your stupid rivalry! We're going to have to fight each other at this point!" Maya yells at Chase and she was right. 'Congratulations!' was being heard over and over again and the people in the room were disappearing like no tomorrow. It looks like the first phase was more about speed than anything else.

"Well I'm going to find someone to kill so I'll see you guys later." Killua announces but before he left Gon shouts.

"But I don't want to kill anyone!"

His friends didn't know what to say. They felt the same way, well expect for Killua and maybe when push comes to shove Leorio but they could see that Gon didn't want to fail either. This was the final phase of the hunter exam all over again.

"Relax. You don't have to kill anyone." Maya suddenly chimes in.

"Huh? But we saw both Hisoka and Sakura kill someone and then pass," Kurapika reminds her.

"Well putting aside this Hisoka guy. I know for a fact that Sakura didn't kill that guy. I've known her for about 6 years now and she has never killed anyone."

"That may be true but she's a hunter-"

"She passed the exam 5 years ago."

"…" Everyone was shocked when Chase stated this fact.

"How old is she?!" Leorio shouts out of disbelief. He was the only one who voices it out loud but everyone was thinking it. The girl looked no older then what 15?

"She's 17." Maya answers him with a blank face. She was really getting tired of these people only judging on looks.

"Oh so she passed when she was 12. That's pretty impressive haha." Leorio scratches the back of his head. He could feel the annoyance bouncing off of her.

"I suppose it is to an old man."

"Who are you calling old man?! I only turned 21 this year!"

"…Eh?!" Maya's eyes widens and her jaw drops open. A vein could be seen popping up on Leorio's forehead.

"Well you got to admit you kind of deserved that Lerio."

"It's Leorio!"

"Ok enough! We're wasting time so let's get started already!" Kurapika finally snaps. He really didn't want to fight his friends and hearing that you didn't have to kill made him all the more motivated to pass. He didn't like failure.

"Kurapika's right. Come on guys we can do it!" Gon yells excitedly.

Everyone else even Leorio who had snapped back to the matter at hand by Kurapika's outburst were all determined to pass the first phase as well.

Looking around at all the determined faces in front of him Kurapika announces the starting signal. It just felt like the thing to do at the moment.

"Ok break!"

The next moment everyone disappears to find their target. Hopefully there were still some people left for them to knock out.

"Hey how did you guys do that?" Leorio was left dumfounded, as everyone had practically vanished into thin air. Speed was not exactly his strong point but he didn't let that get him down long and dashed into the combat zone.

* * *

All of them managed to pass. Turns out the only reason why a lot of people passed really fast at the start was because they had the element of surprise on their side. As time went on everyone had put their guard up and it was a lot harder knocking someone out who was prepared for you.

"Phew! That was harder than I thought!" Leorio breathes a sigh of relief.

"What'd you expect? Everyone here is a professional hunter."

"We probably wouldn't have made it if they weren't."

"Never mind that! We have to find Sakura before that psychopathic maniac does anything bad to her!" Maya shouts with concern for her friend.

Kurapika was a little worried himself. He hadn't seen her after dropping down a hole himself and the person who passed right after her was Hisoka. Who knows what that crazy clown would do. _'I hope nothing bad happened to her.'_

"Hey guys!" Sakura suddenly pops up behind them.

"Gah! Don't do that!" Leorio jumps back from shock.

It looks like they were worried about nothing though. She looked totally fine.

 _'I guess I was worried about nothing.'_ Kurapika thought as he watches Leorio shouting at her for scaring him.

"Sakura! You're ok!" Maya pushes Leorio aside and hugs her friend. "What have you been doing all this time?!"

"Um yeah, I'm fine." Sakura looks at her friend confused as to why she was so worried. "Oh and I've been playing cards with this really interesting guy!"

 _'Wait playing cards why does that sound bad…'_ Kurapika thought as cards to him have now been forever linked to…

"Hey, guess who~" A shiver runs down everyone's back when that eerie and familiar voice reaches their ears.

"Oh hey Hisoka!" Sakura smiles and waves to the man behind them.

"That's who you've been 'playing cards' with?!" Leorio asks with disbelief and uneasiness clearly present in his voice.

"Yeah and why did you use quotation marks around 'playing cards'?" Sakura asks back and did the quotation marks sign around playing cards as well.

"Did you think I did something else with this cutiepie?" Hisoka intervenes with that signature smile and laugh of his.

"Did you actually just play cards?" Kurapika asks looking sceptically at the clown.

"Of course. She was bored so I offered to play with her while she waits for you guys. Besides I need to wait for her to ripen a bit more before that~"

"Haha he says the funniest things." Sakura smiles, oblivious to the fact he had just announced that she was his prey.

 _'Ok maybe there's something wrong with her head…'_ Kurapika concludes.


	3. Chapter 2: Truth x and x Lies

**Chapter 2: Truth x and x Lies**

The ambulances have come and gone leaving only half of the original number of people in the building.

"Congratulations to all the hunters who have passed the first phase!" It was Beans on the TV again. It turns out that the holes led them back to the room they entered at the start. "I would like you to thank the first examiner for making the first exam possible." The screen shifts moving Beans out of the shot and onto a guy in a black cloak. His face was completely hidden by the hood. He gave a quick a nod and then Beans was back. "Ok so the next examiner will be there soon and they do they will explain the second phase of this exam. I wish you all the best of luck." With that the screen went black.

"There was an examiner?" Maya asks taken aback since the examiner didn't appear at the start of the first phase like she thought examiners had to. They were all just thrown into it without any explanation.

"They were probably just testing us on how to react to the unexpected." Kurapika explains. He knew it was an important life lesson after all it wasn't a secret that he was no stranger to unexpected.

"Yeah plus he kind of looked like one of the guys who works in the shadows." Gon adds. Leave it to Gon to put forward those kinds of explanations.

"I know right! You can practically feel it through his aura," Sakura continues on Gon's already interesting theory.

 _'Can you even feel a person's aura through a TV?'_ Kurapika wonders.

"I thought conjurers were supposed to be smart…" Leorio mutters under his breath.

"What was that?" Sakura turns around and gave Leorio one of those smiles with dark aura seeping out of her.

"N-Nothing!" Leorio stutters out a reply and looks away from her. He did not want to end up like the guy she shot in the first phase. Even though he wasn't dead it still looked like he was in pretty bad shape.

 **Boom!**

A smoke bomb suddenly went off at the front of the room. The smoke spread down and out a bit before dissipating and revealing a short fat man. He was wearing those weird spiral glasses and holding really big, thick books. For such a flashy entrance he was that pleasing to the eye.

"I am the second phase examiner!" His shrill voice echoes throughout the entire room, it was unbearable.

 _'Why couldn't he be like the first examiner and not reveal his face or voice ever…'_ Kurapika thought blandly.

"Don't tell me that guy is a professional hunter?" Leorio asks incredulously.

Not a moment later a book comes flying and hits him dead centre in the face. Kurapika would have felt a little sorry for him but the guy has got to learn his lesson on not judging a book by it's cover especially with their encounter with a few certain people.

"Silence!" The examiner shrieks.

How could such a big voice come from such a small man Kurapika honestly could not figure out.

"Now I know some of you may be thinking that I could not possibly be a hunter." The examiner glares at Leorio before continuing. "But let me tell you a little something… intelligence beats strength any day! In the second phase you will be tested on exactly that!"

 _'Good something right up my alley,'_ Kurapika thought happily, not that he wouldn't be able to handle more physically demanding challenges, but he was kind of hoping that this exam wouldn't be too difficult. This was the closest thing to a break he has allowed in a very long time and he wanted it to be an enjoyable time with his friends.

"Now I'll explain the second exam as simple as possible so that even you simpletons can understand how it works."

The examiner turns to face the wall behind him and sets his books down on the floor. Then he places both his hands on the wall. His eyes glow and suddenly doors start appearing on the walls until it encircles the entire room.

Kurapika assumes that there were for each participant to enter but upon further inspection there were definitely not enough doors for everyone. The people in the room murmur amongst themselves, probably having the same thoughts as he did or just out of plain confusion.

"Eh hem!" The examiner clears his throat really loud to silence the room. "I'm assuming you all are confused about the number of doors."

"No kidding Sherlock." Leorio decides to share his opinion out loud again and once again a book came flying and smacks him in the face.

"Anyway…" the examiner continues, veins clearly evident on his forehead. "The chairman agreed with me that you people are nothing but a bunch of imbeciles, so much so that he has decided this phase will be carried out in groups so that you might even have a very small chance of passing. Now get into groups and stand in front of a door so the phase can start."

The room was fill with murmurs once again, but not out of confusion rather out of excitement. Most would hate to admit it but if they were to take this test alone they would most likely fail. But now they have a chance to rope in some poor sucker to do all the work for them.

"Kurapika looks like we can work together this time!" Gon announces excitedly.

"Yeah. It'll just be like the good old days," Leorio joins in while rubbing the spot on his face the book had hit him. Twice.

"That brain of yours is finally useful," Killua adds on casually as if it wasn't in any way an insult at all.

"Uh yeah…" Kurapika responds to his friends' excitement. _'Looks like I'm the poor sucker doing all the work…'_

"Aw that's so nice to see your friends appreciating you so much." Sakura chimes in with sparkling eyes.

 _'Did she actually see Killua's comment as a compliment or was she being sarcastic?_ ' Kurapika couldn't really tell…

"Not so fast!" Leorio suddenly jumps in.

"Huh?" Sakura tilts her head in confusion at Leorio's sudden outburst.

"Don't act all innocent. I don't care if you're a famous idol or whatever you're not going to take advantage of Kurapika!" Leorio declares.

 _'Aren't you doing the same thing?'_ Kurapika sweat drops.

"What?! Why would I do that?!" Sakura responds angrily at being wrongfully accused.

"Leorio you have to stop jumping to conclu-" Kurapika tries to reason with Leorio before he got shot but was cut off.

"Besides I know way more than he does anyway!" Sakura proclaims.

"Ok now just hold on a minute, what makes you think you know more than me?" Kurapika questions her because no offence to her but from what he's seen so far, he can conclude that she was the sharpest tool in the shed.

"I'll have you know I have an IQ over 200," Sakura states with confidence. She was now facing Kurapika, having completely forgotten about Leorio.

"You took an IQ test?" Chase enquires with disbelief.

"Well, I thought it was a game at first but it counts!" Sakura defends herself.

"Um… ok but just so you know I have an IQ over 200 too," Kurapika shot back.

"Yeah well-" Sakura starts.

"Ok enough!" Maya cuts her off deciding to bring this pointless fight to an end before it even started. "Look we have a smarty pants contest going on right now so why don't we decide who knows more about things no one cares about based on the results of the contest?"

"…That's actually a good idea," Kurapika has to admit.

"Ok so whoever gets the most right wins!" Sakura announces showing that she too had accepted the idea.

Gon raises his hand in the air. "What if they both get the same amount right?"

"Then it's whoever does it the fastest?" Kurapika proposes.

"That seems fair…" Sakura agrees. "So it's on!" She announces once again.

"Fine with me."

Sparks were flying as both Kurapika and Sakura glare at each other with determination and confidence in their eyes.

After both of them had calmed down the group heads towards the nearest two doors. They all decide to keep their original groups so on Kurapika's side were Gon, Killua, Leorio and Hanzo and on Sakura's side were Maya and Chase. Hanzo had wanted to go on Sakura's side but she was too absorbed with Kurapika so Maya turned him down for her. In the end he resigned himself to joining Kurapika's side and Hisoka went off on his own, not surprising.

"Looks like you all are _finally_ ready." The examiner remarks, making sure to put the emphasis on the word _finally_. Kurapika was a little surprised as well how long it took for professional hunters to simply get into groups, not that he and his friends were one to talk. He was almost certain they were the going to be the last ones to get ready. "Now I'll explain how this is going to work." He clears his throat before continuing. "The doors in front of you lead to a small room. It will be empty except for the wall you see directly across you when you enter. There will be a question on it in which you have to answer. You will only have one attempt meaning once you have written your answer down you cannot change it. That wall will immediately go up once an answer has been written and the next question will be on the wall behind that one. This will continue until you have completed all 100 questions and reached the end of the corridor, which opens up to a hall where you will have to wait until the time is up. The time limit is 10 hours. Also you have to get at least half right to pass. Any questions?"

"What do we write with?" A voice pops out from the crowd. The examiner had one of those 'are you serious?' faces but he decides it wasn't worth fighting over such a trivial matter and answers the guy without a lecture.

"Use your nen." The examiner answers with indifference and was about to start the second phase right away not waiting for anymore questions, since if he got asked another really stupid question like the one just then he would most likely shoot someone. However, as expected, the universe wasn't that nice and another voice pops up.

"Are the questions difficult?" Sakura asks and

The examiner literally looked like he was about to explode. This question wasn't even remotely important, it was a test, of course there was going to be a level of difficulty. He was able to hold it in though and answers her question though gritted teeth.

"Yes." He opens his mouth to makes the action to start the second phase again but Sakura interrupts him again with a follow up question.

"Do you know all the answers?" Sakura asks with genuine curiosity.

"Of course I do." The examiner responds with irritation.

"How?"

"What do you mean how I was the one who wrote the damn thing!" The examiner looked like he was about to commit a bloody murder.

"Wow! So you wrote all 100 questions on the walls in all the rooms?!" Sakura exclaims with amazement. Kurapika had to admit he was a little amazed too. The guy actually made the effort to do all that for them. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"Well… no. I used my nen to create all the questions." the examiner confesses.

"Oh…" Her amazement dies down as she takes in his confession. "But I'm assuming you're marking all of the questions yourself right? Since if you told anyone else that could lead to cheating."

"Well again… no. The questions are automatically marked once you move on to the next question," the examiner clarifies the phase's process..

"What do you mean automatically?"

"Come on little girl just get over it so we can start the second phase already!" A guy from the crowd yells angrily at her.

"Shut up! She's asking a very important question!" The examiner yells back at the guy. He wouldn't let a chance do to be able to brag about his own abilities slip by. He had been answering all her ridiculous questions, might as well get something out of it. "Ok look, I think this will be easier if I explain how my nen works."

Kurapika was more than shocked that the examiner was actually cooperating. Maybe he was at least a good enough guy to explain something to someone for nothing.

"This way you'll see how incredible it is!" The examiner declares in a smug tone.

 _'Nope,_ he's just another narcissistic jerk.' Kurapika realises, although he didn't have much hope to begin with.

"You see I ask the universe a question and it gives me the answer. This way I can know the answer to anything." He explains and was now ready for an applause or sign of admiration. He didn't get anything close…

"So you're just a cheater," Sakura says with a deadpan expression.

"Of course not!" The examiner exclaims, offended by the accusation.

"But you basically just have an answer book." Sakura points to the book in the examiner's hands, although she doesn't know if it was actually _the_ answer book.

"Well then how do you find things out? Through a book right?" He counters looking quite complacent. _'Now way she can counter that!'_

"I guess…" She actually appeared to be accepting what the examiner just said. A couple of people in the room gave a sigh of relief. Finally she was done and they can get on with the exam. "So who ate the first cake?"

"Huh?"

"Well I've always wanted to know and you can know the answer to anything so…" Sakura prompts the examiner.

"Uh ok…" The examiner was getting tired of being interrogated so he decides it was best to answer her ridiculous question to shut her up and end this.

The examiner closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then after he breathed out, he was all ready to ask the question but Sakura intervenes before a single sound came out.

"You can't do that!" Sakura shouts at the examiner with flailing arms.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" The examiner asks with hints of malice laced through his words.

Kurapika was amazed that he hadn't snapped from all the crap Sakura was giving him. Perhaps he had a soft spot for girls considering his reaction to Leorio and that other guy.

"Yeah but if you do that, that's cheating!" Sakura firmly states and stomps her foot to add to the moment.

Eyes snap open.

"No one would know the answer to such a pointless question!" The examiner yells at the top of his lungs. He wasn't holding anything back anymore. The fury, malice and annoyance were now very clear in his voice and all over his face. His temple was filled with veins just ready to burst, and this time he did it…

"You know what, I was going to take it a little easy on you people but I've changed my mind!" Eyes shut closed and were glowing like crazy when they reopened.

A shockwave passes through all of them and hit the doors. The doors shake and clatter then begins to settle down after a few more moments of violent shaking.

"There… now there are questions even… even I don't know the answer to yet…" The examiner squeezes out in his exhausted state before collapsing.

Deadly silence fills the room as everyone stares at the unconscious body lying on the floor. Then every pair of eyes in the room shift to the person who was responsible for making the examiner faint.

"Huh. I can't believe that worked," Sakura says plainly while just staring at the examiner on the floor, her eyes were slightly widened as a sign of little surprise.

"You planned that?" Kurapika questions Sakura in shock.

Sakura just glances over to Kurapika direction and utters a "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." And with that she reaches forward and opens the door then walks inside as if she didn't just cause a mental breakdown. "A contest is more fun with harder questions," she states before going out of sight.

"How does she do the worst things with the greatest of ease?" Kurapika meant to only say in his mind but accidently says it out loud.

"Well to her if you're not dead, you're fine," Chase clarifies.

"…Is that so," Kurapika responds hesitantly.

"Yep. By the way shouldn't you get going? Aren't you supposed to be competing with her?"

"Ah, that's right!" Kurapika recalls the challenge and races through the door. He wasn't about to lose to that wack job.

Both their friends follow them in and when the last one was through the door automatically closes behind them. Now the only way to go was forward but that didn't seem be a problem for Kurapika and his friends. As soon as the door shut behind them the wall in front of them went up indicating a question has just been answered.

"Wow Kurapika that was fast!" Gon shouts with amazement.

"Yeah we just got he-." Before Killua could even finish his sentence another wall went up. "-re…"

"Is it necessary to go this fast? For all you know she could still be on the first-" Another wall went up. "-question…"

"Better safe than sorry. I am not losing her," Kurapika answers firmly.

"That's the spirit! Here let me help." Hanzo offers but his request was rejected by a slap on the hand.

"Ow! What was that for?" Hanzo asks confused while rubbing the back of his hand where Kurapika had hit him.

"Sorry." Kurapika apologises, as his reaction was a bit harsh on a person that was only trying to help. "I just really want to do this myself." It wouldn't count if Hanzo or anyone else helped him.

"So you're just going to do all this yourself?"

"Yep."

"Awesome! I'm down for doing no work at all."

"Killua!" Leorio shouted at Killua for attempting to take advantage of Kurapika.

"What? We'd just get in the way anyway."

"No we won't! Right Kurapika?"

When Leorio turns to ask him Kurapika just turns away to avoid any chance of eye contact.

Leorio went to sulk in a corner and Gon goes to pat his back.

* * *

Maya and Chase had just entered the room to find their friend staring at the wall, unmoving.

"Sakura what are you doing?" Maya asks.

"I'm waiting for Kurapika to answer the first question so we can start together."

"Um ok… but wouldn't that just mean that he would have the head start?"

"…" Sakura was at a loss for words as contemplates on what Chase had just told her.

 **Boom!**

The sound came from the room Kurapika and the others were in.

"Ah! He already answered the first question. Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Sakura shouts and starts shaking Chase.

"I-I didn't know y-you were w-waiting for him!" Chase manages to squeeze out while being violently shaken. "Anyway s-shouldn't you get s-started?"

Sakura stops shaking her friend and shifts to the wall with the question. She raises her hand and pink petals swarm around then scattered to reveal a cute pink pen with cherry blossoms on it.

 _'For a person short on time it was a really detailed pen…'_ Chase thought.

She spins the pen around once before announcing, "Let's do this!" Then she was off. Like Kurapika she answers the first question with ease and the rest follow suit.

The race was on.

Both Kurapika and Sakura were answering questions at an unbelievable speed. There was no hesitation as they answered each question. None of their friends could even read the question before the wall went up and revealed the next one behind it.

"Wow Sakura how do you know all this stuff? Didn't the examiner say that even he didn't know some of the answers to these questions?" Maya asks as she watches her in amazement.

"You shouldn't think highly of that guy. I bet the books he carries are just for decoration. Unlike him I actually read a lot of books." Sakura answers her whilst still answering the questions without the slightest falter in her movements.

"I didn't know you were interested in history and all that other stuff about the world," Maya remarks.

"Well I'm not but see I used to have this friend and he used to tell me I should use my time to read and learn instead of wasting it on useless things like music and building booby traps."

"Wait you used to build booby tra-"

"So I was like stuff you I can be smart and still be able to play and have fun! Anyway now it's just become a habit now and I just read random books when I have free time."

Not knowing how to react to… whatever that meant, Maya decides to just leave her be but something clicked in Chase's head and he decides to voice it out loud.

"Hey Sakura, how come we've never met that friend of yours or any of your other friends?" Chase asks with interest.

Sakura's hand immediately stops moving. That was definitely suspicious.

"Because… I think he thinks that… I'm dead?" Sakura says hesitantly as if she had just come up with a random lie and just realised how stupid it sounded when she hears it out loud. It wasn't a lie though. It may be an over simplified version of the truth but it was still the truth…

 _'Ugh!'_ Why did she even have to bring him up she wonders. _'I should really learn not to get caught up in the moment and blurt out something stupid.'_

She just really didn't have the heart to talk about it and was hoping with all her heart that her friend would just drop it.

That hope was short-lived.

"Ok so he thinks you're dead so that means he's alive right? So why didn't you tell him you're not dead?" Maya asks puzzled. If she herself met a lost friend she would tell them immediately.

"To be fair, I thought he was dead as well!" Sakura defends herself. ' _Why did she have to be so perceptive now?'_

"Anyway, I really rather not talk about it, okay?" She says right after so that Maya or Chase did not have a chance to retort.

She wasn't ready. Everything was changing too fast. Things that she never thought she had to deal with again were resurfacing. Everything she had kept hidden deep down had the potential to be brought out into the light and she was honestly scared.

Silence fills the entire room only to be interrupted by the sound of the wall going up once again. Both Maya and Chase knew that, that was a sign that Sakura was serious when she was said she didn't want to talk about it and that was saying something since she was rarely ever serious about anything. No one spoke a word and just let the sound of the walls lull the situation. It was at a much slower pace though. The energy their friend had at the start was long gone, which caused a whole lot of guilt to flood into Maya and Chase.

 _'Why did I say that?'_ Maya thought with regret. She didn't know what it was that made her normally very cheery friend so upset, but no matter how curious she was she knew it wasn't a good idea to push any further. "Sorry."

"Ah! You don't have to apologize! It's not your fault!" Sakura reassures Maya, waving her hands in front of her and forcing a smile on her face. "I was just thinking about stuff…" She starts drifting away again at the end, but this time Maya didn't say anything back.

* * *

Meanwhile on Kurapika's end, things were actually going pretty smoothly. Leorio was still sulking a little but even if Kurapika had wanted his help he wouldn't be able to help him… Kurapika's pace had slowed down a little due to increase in the length and the difficulty of the questions and now that his friends could actually read the questions they saw that they had no chance in hell without Kurapika. It's not like they weren't smart but they were only geniuses at particular things. For instance Leorio would know more about medicine better than anyone, Hanzo would excel in martial arts, Killua with assassination techniques and Gon knew the forest like the back of his hand. Everybody had their own strengths and this was probably what the second phase was supposed to exploit but thanks to Kurapika that wasn't the case.

"Kurapika how do you know all this stuff?" Gon groans. Just watching him made his brain hurt.

"Books," Kurapika gives him short reply.

"Pff! What did you do read a whole library?!" Leorio questions Kurapika in a joking manner.

"Actually I read all the books in the library of my hometown," Kurapika proclaims.

"You sure had a lot of free time."

"Well it's not like I could do anything else. Might as well do something useful for the future." He had to inwardly sigh at the last part. All the reading and learning in the past was pretty much useless for the path he was on now. Although he had to admit that doing this quiz now and competing with Sakura struck a feeling of nostalgia and it felt nice. It was as if he had escaped for a brief moment in time and gone back to the peaceful days where he would compete with his old friend. But at the same time it was excruciating knowing that it would never really happen, after all what he once loved was all gone. His friend was no exception.

 _'Ok no, let's not think about that now,'_ Kurapika tells himself and shakes his head.

His friends didn't seem to question him further probably knowing to tread lightly when the subject of his past came up. It's not like he was completely against talking about the past, but he did appreciate his friends' gesture.

* * *

Both Kurapika and Sakura were now solely focused on completing the quiz now and it looked like they were almost finished without any problems with the questions. That was until they reached the final question. Both of them stop in their tracks. Their hand and whole body frozen in place as their mind processed the question on the wall. The others, curious about their friend's sudden pause, decide to read the question themselves. They weren't that worried because they have answered every other question with ease. It was only a matter of time they don't know the answer to one of them. But that wasn't the case this time. The reason both of them had stopped wasn't because they didn't know the answer it was something else.

For Kurapika's friends it was obvious that it wasn't that he didn't know the answer to the question but it was a different story with Sakura's friends.

* * *

"Did a question finally get you stumped?" Chase enquires with a smug look on his face. He wouldn't admit it out loud but it had bothered him a little in the shift of intelligence in their friend group. He was more than happy to show his intelligence by answering a question even Sakura who has recently shown that she wasn't as dense as she seemed.

That face was soon wiped completely off as he read the question.

 _'How many kuratas lived in Lusko before the massacre?'_

"Ok I think we're screwed on this one," Chase announces.

"Hey! What about me?!" Maya chimes in, offended that Chase didn't even consider the fact that maybe _she_ knew the answer.

"Oh, you know the answer?" Chase asks with a surprise.

"…Well no …but I could've known, you guys don't know!" Maya defends herself. Sure she may not know the answer to this particular question but that doesn't mean she wasn't smart and anyway they didn't know either so they were all in the same boat.

"It's not that I don't know the answer," Sakura finally speaks up.

Chase and Maya stops glaring at each other and turned their heads towards her. Then looked back at each other in confusion then back at her. Maya nudges Chase telling him to ask her the question that she knew was on both their minds.

"Then why did you stop?" Chase asks slowly. Partly because he knew it wasn't a good idea but mostly because he wanted to ask more than that one question. This was actually the closest they have gotten to unravelling the secrets that he knows that she has been keeping from them. Maya may not have noticed because they met first and have a lot more trust between them but he had watched Sakura from an objective point of view over the past few years and something about her just didn't quite add up. How he wished he could just go up and ask her all his questions but he knew if he did she would just stealthily avoid them or worst case scenario she would cut all ties with them. He cared for her and not letting your troubles out isn't good for you, plus Maya would kill him if Sakura cut ties with her because of something he did. Anyway, why can't she see that they can help her instead of bottling it all up inside?

Sakura was a little confused on why Chase asked her so slow and how he was eyeing her but she decides to brush it aside and answer him.

"…I'm not sure if I have the right answer…" Sakura replies with uncertainty in her voice.

"Well your guess is as good as ours."

"It doesn't even matter anyway. You got all the other question right, right?" Maya adds an extra right as she realises that Sakura might have gotten all the questions wrong.

"Of course I did… haah… what the heck." After much thought Sakura decides to answer the question. It's not like it was going to change anything…

On the other side Kurapika did the same.

 _Kurapika – 128_

 _Sakura – 129_

* * *

The last question had been answered and the last wall had gone up. What was behind it was nothing but fresh air they so richly needed after being closed in for what felt like forever. It was a lot more emotional than what any of them bargained for.

"Uwaa! Finally free!" Gon flops onto the green grass.

The hallway had led to a wide open plain with green as far as the eye can see. It was a total change of scenery and Gon definitely preferred this one than the last.

"Wow who knew that dingy room led to this?" Leorio finally speaks after his long sulking session.

"Yeah! It's amazing!" A voice rings out from behind them.

"Ah! What are you guys doing here?!" Leorio points at Sakura, Maya and Chase as they emerge from the hole next to theirs.

"The same reason as you?" Maya answers them. Did he really forget that they were all in the same exam?

"Right… haha." Leorio scratches the back of his head sheepishly, which just causes Maya to roll her eyes.

"Hey since you both finished at pretty much the same time is it all down to how many questions you got right, right?"

"Huh? Oh! The competition I completely forgot." With all that happened it completely slipped Sakura's mind.

"If you could even call it a competition," Leorio remarks.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well I'm just saying there is no way you can win." Leorio tells her looking all confident despite the fact that he wasn't even the one competing against her.

"What are you so proud of you weren't even the one competing," Kurapika decides to point out.

"Kurapika who's side are you-"

"Yeah and you're wrong! Sakura's definitely going to win you should've seen her go!" Maya fires back at Leorio.

"No you're wrong! Kurapika was going at the speed of light!" Leorio fires back.

It was really only Leorio and Maya who were in the heated battle. Kurapika and Sakura had backed away from the fire but they could still see the sparks flying between their two friends.

"Oi! Instead of arguing why don't you people just be patient and wait until the exam is over to get the results of the competition?"

"Because they're idiots," Killua says with an indifferent tone.

"Killua!" Gon yells at Killua.

"Sakura-chan is not an idiot! She'll score 100 out of 100 for sure," Hanzo joins in.

"Hanzo you traitor!"

"What happened to no arguing?"

In the end everyone still continued arguing but as more and more people start to appear it slowly dies out until it was complete silence. Some people had been eyeing them since they were the first ones to finish and it was just plain uncomfortable, especially Hisoka's gaze. Kurapika really hopes that maniac turns out to be an idiot and fails.

It didn't take 10 hours for everyone to finish and the sun had just started to set.

"Ok time for the results." The examiner steps out from the actual door on the wall. "Now let's see if any of you fools passed."

The examiner's eyes started to glow and so did the sheet of paper he had in his hands. After a while the glowing dies out and the examiner clears his throat before announcing the results. "If I call out you name then you pass…" He begins reading the paper and his eyes widen at the first name on the list. It almost looked like they were about to pop right out of his head. "It can't be. There must have been a mistake. But that's impossible I don't make mistakes."

"What's wrong?" Sakura asks with genuine concern.

"What the hell are you doing?" Maya yells at Sakura in a hushed tone.

"Huh? I was just-"

"You!" The examiner points at her.

"E-eh me?"

"You scored… 100." The last part came out in a mumble. He continues to mouth it over and over trying to wrap his head around it.

Sakura herself looked a little surprised but more about the fact that the examiner instantly assumed that it was all her doing. Maybe he had overheard about her conversation with Kurapika…

 _'_ _Eavesdropping is a violation of privacy people!"_ Sakura's inner self yells and starts plotting ways on how to make them all realize this in the worst way possible. Of course she wasn't actually going to carry them out but a girl can scheme can't she?

"Her mind has wondered onto something really stupid hasn't it?" Maya askes Chase while watching her friend make really weird facial expressions while exerting a pretty questionable aura. Although it was really more of a statement than a question but Chase gave his affirmation anyway.

"Yep."

Meanwhile Kurapika's mind was nowhere near their contest. Right now the only thing on his mind was _'How did she get the last answer right?'_ Could it be that… no! What was he thinking she obviously just read it somewhere random she did say she read a lot of books… yes, that was the only explanation. He should know by now that it couldn't possibly be what he first thought. Why was he torturing himself again especially after the Pairo incident. But now that he took a closer look she does sort of look like-

"Wait! Did anyone else score 100?" Leorio interrupts his train of thought. Absolutely not accepting that she may have beaten Kurapika.

"What? Oh." At this point the examiner just decides to accept defeat and goes on to finish his job as examiner professionally. He already looked bad enough as it is.

Leorio's question had been ignored but as the results were being announced it was soon answered when he reached their group.

"Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio and Hanzo pass with a score of 99," The examiner reads out.

"Wait, which question did I get wrong?" Kurapika interjects before the examiner could move on to the next group. He acknowledges the fact that Sakura is really smart but that doesn't mean he wasn't just as smart. He takes pride in his vast knowledge and none of the questions in his opinion was out of it.

"The last one."

Blink. Blink.

"What?" Kurapika asks completely dumbfounded.

The last question was about his clan wasn't it? How could he have gotten it wrong… but more importantly how could she have gotten it right? That meant that their answers were different and he got it wrong? It makes no sense!

Seeing the conflict in his eyes the examiner motions to the person who was the very cause of his brain malfunctioning.

"Why don't you just ask her? After all she seems to have _all_ the answers," the examiner told him in a bitter sarcastic tone and returns to announcing the results.

Kurapika decides to take his advice and walks up to Sakura who was recovering from her own mental meltdown of some sort.

"Um… how did you know the answer to the last question?" Kurapika asks Sakura a little dubiously.

The dark aura dissipates from around her and she turns to face him.

"Huh? Oh um… I don't know it was just somewhere in my mind I guess haha." She replies and gives Kurapika a nonchalant shrug.

"Did you read about it in a book?" Kurapika questions Sakura further.

"Uh yeah." _'Let's go with that.'_ She replies, deliberately leaving out the last bit unbeknown to him.

"So… what was your answer?"

"129. My memory was really hazy so I just took a wild guess. Looks like luck was on my side haha." _'Don't look at him in the eyes don't look him in the eyes he'll know you're lying!'_ Sakura repeats to herself in her head. She was really regretting answering the last question the way she did now. Why didn't she just answer it normally? Well a part of her knew exactly why and was both a little glad and sad she had been right.

"Oh…" So he was just one off. Maybe they had updated the records now that they knew one was still alive. But even so he only remembered there being 128 _including_ himself… did he just forget someone?

At the thought of actually forgetting one of his brethren, he was hit with a sharp pang of guilt and hurt. Even though it literally felt as if the judgment chain had literally stabbed him in the heart he knew it was the only explanation and he had to accept it.

Both were unaware to what was going on in the other's mind and both planned to keep it that way, causing a really awkward silence. Luckily that didn't last long when their friends came and meddles.

"So you're finally at the age when you think about that kind of stuff huh," Killua implies slyly.

"You can't do that. You didn't even know about her!" Hanzo yells at him looking very betrayed.

"What no, I was just asking her what she got for the last answer!" Kurapika defends himself.

"That's right! How did you get that question right when even Kurapika got it wrong and he's actually a kurata!"

"That has actually been on my mind a lot since it was the only question Sakura struggled with. What is a kurata?" Chase asks.

"Me too! They must've been pretty bad people to have been massacred." Maya adds without realizing what a terrible thing she just said.

"Maya!" Sakura yells at her and glares at her.

"W-What?" Maya couldn't help but stutter. This was one of the very few times that she had seen her friend make a serious glare.

"No, it's ok." Kurapika cuts in before things got bad. He didn't like seeing friends fighting and he certainly didn't want to be the cause of it.

"Ah! I didn't mean to-" Maya starts as she realize her mistake.

"It's ok." He reassures her. It's not like she knew any better but it did surprise him that she and her other friend didn't know about his clan. Didn't they say they passed the hunter exam 5 years ago? Well it was sort of a good thing they didn't since it shows that they're not interested in those kinds of things and that made him feel a lot better around them.

"But so that we're clear. The kurata weren't bad people they were only massacred for their scarlet eyes." It still hurt a lot when he said this but he wanted to set the record straight.

"Scarlet eyes?"

"Our eyes were named this as they turn red when we get angry." Kurapika explains.

"Ooh! I want to see!" Maya says excitedly and stares intently at his eyes.

"Um… I'd rather not." Kurapika says. He saw the look of disappointment in her eyes but he wasn't really up for it right now more than ever.

"By the way just because you won this round doesn't mean you've won it all!" Leorio points at Sakura. He was glad that Leorio adverted the attention to something else but shouldn't it be the person who was actually competing that says those kinds of things.

"Bring it on I'll take him on and beat him down any day." Sakura responds, which lead to _another_ fight.

 _'_ _Those two sure know how to make people mad'_ Kurapika thought as he just watches it go down. Hanzo was holding back Leorio and yelling at him that he would kill him if he even put a scratch on his idol whilst Sakura was just taunting him by pulling her eye sticking and her tongue out at him. He couldn't help but smile at the scene.

And thus phase 2 was concluded.


	4. Chapter 3: Keep x Moving x Forward

**Chapter 3: Keep x Moving x Forward**

The previous examiner had left and the new one had taken his place, which was good since he was on the edge of losing it thanks to a certain someone.

Now everyone was waiting for the new examiner to make a move. Any move. Literally any move. She hadn't moved an inch since she arrived and that was 3 hours ago. The sun had already swapped places with the moon a long time ago and she had just been standing there with her arms crossed and her back to them. A few people had already left and went looking for a place to stay the night but others had a bit more patience. Kurapika had been reading a book the entire time and had just finished at the 3-hour mark. He looked around to see how many were left and if his friends were still there as well. After looking around for a while he spots Gon chasing Killua around with something in his hands, Leorio pacing back and forth with a really angry expression on his face, Hanzo was meditating and Sakura was asleep, splayed in a rather awkward position on the grass. Wait… since when has he counted her as a friend?

' _Well she doesn't seem like a bad person so I guess it's ok,'_ Kurapika thought.

Since Kurapika had noticed her he thought he might as well see if her friends stuck around. They were and for some reason Maya was glaring at him. He averts his eyes from her menacing gaze but what he saw was even worse and… disturbing. He saw Hisoka intently watching his friends Gon and Killua with a very questionable grin… Anyway, it was good that all his friends plus some extras were still here. Professional hunters were a lot more impatient than he thought they would be, well they have only been hunters for a decade.

 _'Wait.'_

Could it be that the exam was already over for today and they had just been waiting for a total random to make a move? No, this could also be a test of patience. Patience is a very important skill for a hunter. But then again the examiner didn't seem to be concerned with them. She hadn't even looked at them once-

"Yosh!"

Kurapika's epiphany was interrupted by a sudden outburst from the very person who was causing his confusion.

"Ok! Let's start this thing!" The examiner pumps her fist in the air then turns around to face them for the very first time. "To the moon!" She yells and fires up her aura before she began running towards the moon at top speed.

"Um are we supposed to follow her?"

"I guess so."

"Let's do this thing!" Sakura declares excitedly and fires up her aura, thinking that this was some form of race, which she loved.

Everyone else fires up their aura as well and speeds after her.

"Cool, this is just like the first phase of our hunter exam!" Gon shouts excitedly, remembering the event that had brought them all together.

"Which means we'll breeze right through it," Leorio says confidently.

"I don't seem to recall you _breezing_ right through last time," Kurapika decides to casually remind him.

"Well this time it's different, I have maximum stamina now," Leorio tells them with confidence.

"What about those?" Killua points to the large array of deadly obstacles in front of them.

There were slitting saws coming out of the ground and swinging around on ropes tied to who knows where, lasers that were constantly moving and flames bursting out randomly from the right and left.

"At least they show us what we have to get through to pass right from the start. " Gon tries to lift Leorio's spirit's up although the bursting flames weren't really helping his case.

"Gah!" Leorio cries out in pain as a fragment of a saw that had been heated by the flames hit his face. "That's it you're going down!"

The others watched as Leorio stops to hit the ground, then by using his nen he was able to create a portal so instead of the ground, he punches hanging saws. He was able to hit it and shatter it to pieces but instead of celebrating he brings back his fist and cries out in pain "Gaaaaahhh!" Like the fragment from before the saw had been heated up by the flames and burnt his hand very badly.

"Want me to heal that for you?" Kurapika offers as he lets out a sigh at his friend's actions.

"That would great." Leorio quickly answers as he winces in pain.

Kurapika summons up his chains and uses his holy chain to heal Leorio's burn and since it was only a minor injury it only took a couple of seconds to heal completely without using his scarlet eyes.

"Thanks." Leorio smiles as he checks his hand and was really impressed by Kurapika's healing abilities.

"You're welcome."

"Now let me show you how it's done." Killua says as he pushes Kurapika and Leorio out of the way and proceeds to create electricity in his hands.

 **Boom!**

Killua threw a lightning bolt and in a matter of seconds the whole thing went up in smoke.

"Piece of cake." Killua turns to the others and gave a smirk at his handiwork.

"I think you should take another look." Kurapika points behind Killua.

Killua turns back around and sees that the obstacles he had just destroyed was back and looked totally untouched. He could only gape at the scene.

"Looks like we have to do it the old fashioned way." Gon says as he stretches his legs, getting ready to run then with a final jump he speeds towards the obstacles. He dodges all the saws and fires and makes his way through. "Come on guys!"

Hanzo follows in after Gon and easily gets through being the ninja he is. Killua races after them and quickly passes Hanzo to catch up to Gon. Kurapika goes off next with Leorio following close behind.

* * *

At the same time, Sakura was up the front and since she was right next to the examiner, none of the obstacles affected her. The examiner had tried speeding up to lose her but she caught right back up.

"Mou! You have to get behind me!" The examiner yells out in frustration.

Her ability was to create obstacles behind her so that people could not get through and since she didn't want to get caught up in her own obstacles she usually creates them behind her but Sakura was beside her so that means she wasn't affected either.

"Why don't you just make the obstacles in front of you?" Sakura suggests with a seemingly innocent smile. At this point, she had already figured out what the examiner was doing.

Of course the examiner had thought of doing that but she really didn't want to face those obstacles. Sakura may have gotten the gist of the examiner's abilities but they were much more complex. Someone wouldn't be able to survive as a hunter if that was all they could do. The true nature of her ability is the creation of a trigger to set off obstacles and the natures of the obstacles vary from person to person because every person pictures a different obstacle. She can control the level of the obstacles but the people who come across her triggers make everything else. The two ways to set off the trigger is either to step on the landmines that she had set along the way that activates her abilities or to think of the possibility of there being an obstacle in their way. This one may seem weird but it works very well against people who she was trying to catch. Cornered people tend to become very paranoid and think that there would be traps all around them, which would set off the trigger and make their imaginary obstacles come true.

The triggers were coordinated from white to black. White being the easiest obstacle ever and black is the worst thing you will ever encounter. The triggers in between could be any colour and are coordinated by shade. The lighter the colour the easier the obstacle will be, the darker it is the harder it is. In this case the triggers were green to camouflage into the grass. The examiner had set them up so the further the participants got, the more difficult the trigger levels were. The obstacles will disappear after a while but the triggers will still be active for the next person.

The one Kurapika and the others faced were made from Killua's idea of an obstacle. Being a former assassin he was made to be wary of such traps and by doing that it set off the trigger although it was a white one so the obstacles were what Killua deemed easy.

Finally reaching the realization that Sakura was not going to slow down anytime soon. The examiner finally gives in and accepts the fact that she would have to face her own obstacles if she wanted catch Sakura in her trap. She unwillingly creates a grey trigger and w it in front of herself. As soon as it hit the ground there was a huge explosion that caused her, Sakura and the others behind them to jump back. When the smoke clears a series of lasers appear in front of them. They were constantly moving and at quite a fast pace.

"How do you like that?" The examiner says smugly and turns to her side only to see that Sakura was already running towards her obstacle.

"I love lasers!" Sakura yells out excitedly and happily dives into the deadly lasers. "It's like a game!" She continues to yell out as she easily makes her way through the laser field.

The examiner could only stare before someone else enters the laser field as well and snaps her out of it.

"Hey! Wait! I'm supposed to be the leader!" The examiner calls out after them before she jumps in after them.

* * *

Gon, Killua and Hanzo were speeding through whilst Kurapika and Leorio were lagging behind. They had passed a couple of people on the way and were now onto the grey trigger area. Leorio had been struggling with the obstacles Gon, Killua and Hanzo had been creating due to the difference in their skills. This exam seemed to be based on speed and agility and those were not Leorio's strong points.

"Kurapika, you go ahead," Leorio tells Kurapika as he had noticed that Kurapika had been slowing down to match his pace.

"Are you sure?" Kurapika questions Leorio, as he could see just how much Leorio was sweating.

Kurapika didn't want to leave Leorio alone and planned to stay with him until the end, that was until a hand that he hoped was only covered in sweat was placed on his back. Feeling the wet sensation on his back, a shiver runs up his spine and he bolts away from it.

"That jerk actually went ahead!" Leorio shouts in disbelief as he had watches Kurapika sprint away from him very fast. "I'm not going to lose!" He pumps himself up and chases after Kurapika.

Kurapika had run so fast that he had caught up to Gon and Killua.

"So you finally ditched the old man huh?" Killua casually remarks.

"I heard that!" Leorio yells from behind.

"I wonder where that girl with pink hair went." Gon brings up since they hadn't seen her at all and they had past quite a lot of people.

Truth be told Kurapika had hoped he would've bumped into her by now. They had been running for what seemed like forever and had encountered a lot of obstacles and other hunters along the way.

"She must be at the very front," Killua says, bringing logic into play.

"That would make sense… let's catch up to her!" Gon suggests excitedly.

"Ok, I bet we're not that far behind."

"But what about Leorio." Kurapika decides to remind them and points to the man panting very heavily behind them. Sure Leorio was giving this race his all but he doesn't seem like he was going to catch up to them anytime soon and asking him to speed up doesn't seem at all possible in his current state.

"We'll take care of him for you." Chase suddenly appears beside Kurapika.

"When did you get here?"

"We were already here, stupid." Maya appears on the other side.

"What do you mean you were already here?"

"Maya gave up and dragged me down wi-"

"I didn't give up!" Maya cuts Chase off and glares at him. "I just decided to use my nen ability to finish this stupid thing."

"Isn't that kind of cheating?"

"Pretty much."

"Do you want me to hurt you?" Maya threatens Chase for not only agreeing to the accusation she was cheating but he had basically outlined her ability to Kurapika who she didn't like. He was getting too close to Sakura in her opinion.

"Anyway…" Chase starts to speak but in return stops running. "Like I said we'll take care of your friend."

Maya looks back at him then clicks her tongue knowing that if she left him behind and he didn't pass this phase Sakura would be upset. She stops as well and waits for Leorio to catch up to Chase so he would catch up to her.

"Thank you!" Gon yells out behind him then speeds out of sight Killua follows right after him whilst Kurapika looks back one more time, hesitant of leaving Leorio alone.

They seemed like good people from what he had witnessed so far, Leorio would be fine although it wasn't going to end well if Leorio made Maya mad and being Leorio, he probably will… Good thing he can also fix him back up with his holy chain that is if he's still alive.

 _'Oh well.'_ Kurapika thought and speeds out of sight as well.

* * *

They had literally been running for hours now and the way Kurapika could tell was the fact that light was starting to peek over the horizon, but the scenery hadn't changed, it was still a mass of green all around. Although he had noticed some patches of the grass were lighter and some were darker. Had it rained without him noticing?

Kurapika didn't have time to deliberate over it for long though, as a few moments later another obstacle sprouts from out of the ground. This time they were in the form of people, creepy, green, faceless people. Gon and Killua took care of them all really fast but then they started to regenerate themselves. It was slow but the action had caught them off guard. They decide to play it safe and watch how this was going to turn out. They watch as the green pieces on the ground start to gather together into a pile then form back into the shape of people. Gon and Killua went to destroy them again and this time he helped them but it happened again. After they were destroyed and scattered all over the place, they gathered themselves together again.

"This is never going to end!" Gon yells out and Kurapika had to agree with him.

At this rate they were all going to use up all their energy against there green freaks. "Ugh! How could I have not realised sooner?!" Kurapika finally realises the obvious solution, those things were made out of grass.

Gon and Killua look over at Kurapika confused at his sudden outburst.

"Killua use your electricity on them."

"Why they'll just regenerate again."

"No they won't. Those things are made out of grass and grass burns, but you would have to get them all in one go."

"Hmph, who do you take me for."

Killua gathers his aura between his hands and creates a mass of electricity before throwing it at the green creatures. In a split second the entire area in front of them were engulfed in flame.

"See easy!" Killua says confidently, admiring his work.

"Kurapika is something wrong?" Gon asks.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just normally you'd figure these things out right away." Gon says with concern for his friend.

"Oh… it's probably because we've been up all day," Kurapika reassures Gon it was only a lack of sleep. Science does say that not getting enough sleep causes your brain to work less efficiently. Yep, just a lack of sleep, nothing else and it defiantly has nothing to do with a certain someone up ahead.

* * *

As Kurapika and the others were waiting for the fire to die down a little before they go through, Sakura was up ahead still competing with the examiner. They had gone through countless of obstacles made by the examiner but none of them had fazed Sakura.

"Why won't you go down?!" The examiner yells at her in frustration.

"Isn't the point of this phase to not go down?" Sakura tilts her head, confused as to why the examiner wanted her to fail so badly.

"No, the point of this phase is that I set traps for you people and you fall for it and die!" The examiner yells back.

 _'Her true colours are showing…'_ The other hunters behind them thought and sweat drop.

They continued on like this for a while and due to the examiner's rage all the obstacles had been extremely difficult that even she herself sustained minor injuries and the distance between her and the others widened. But that still wasn't enough to take Sakura down, so she decides to use her last resort.

To Sakura's surprise the examiner had gathers up all her energy and speeds in front of her and when she deems she was far enough she gathers her nen to the palm of her hands to create a black sphere. Sakura could only watch as the examiner raises the sphere before slamming it into the ground. A mass of black spurted out towards her, causing her to reflectively close her eyes and cross her arms in front of herself to brace for the impact, but nothing hit her.

After about a minute of silence, she slowly opens her eyes and was greeted with a completely different scene. Instead of the wide-open field she was now in a completely desolate village and she knew exactly who it belonged to.

"You have got to be kidding me."

* * *

On the outside, the examiner stands with a big smirk on her face as she looks upon the black sphere that had engulfed Sakura. "That'll show her."

The examiner then notices the people coming towards her from behind and decides that since she used her last level on Sakura she might as well do it for the rest. She may not like the kid but this was still an exam and it needed to be fair, so she created a bunch of black spheres and threw them at the upcoming contenders. She did this to Kurapika, Gon and Killua when they arrived as well.

"What happening?"

"It must be part of the exam." Kurapika was able to get out before he was completely engulfed by the sphere.

Gon and Killua got engulfed in the same sphere, but they were all split up inside.

When the darkness subsides what Kurapika could now see was even worse than the darkness. He was in his village after the massacre, the buildings were in complete ruins, the burn marks could still be seen and there was absolutely nobody there. It was just him surrounded by what was left of his village after the devastation. His eyes didn't turn red at the scene though he already knew that even if he returned to his village it would be in shambles. As he walks around he starts to recall how everything used to be. He visits his old house and heads to his room that was now roofless and covered in dust. He goes through his shelves and finds that all his books were still there including the one about the outside world that he and Pairo used to read. He took it out of the shelf and rubs the dust off. Looking through it was painful but he continues to sift through it anyways and he remembers what he and Pairo used to talk about on the pages. He keeps turning but then stopped at a page that someone seemed to have spilt something on it.

 _~ Flashback ~_

 _"Come on Pairo!" Kurapika calls out to his friend and waves the book the hunter Sheila had given them._

 _"I'm coming." Pairo reassures him and joins him under the tree._

 _Once Pairo was beside him he opens the book onto the page they were last on, then turns over to the next one. This time is was about some mythical creature called 'The loch ness monster'._

 _"Eh? But didn't dinosaurs die out like a billion years ago?!" Kurapika says as he compares the resemblance between the loch ness monster and the dinosaurs he had read about on previous pages._

 _"That's because it's not a dinosaur, stupid," A voice from above corrects him._

 _Kurapika looks up from the book and saw a girl dangling upside down in front of him._

 _"Gah!" Kurapika drops the book in shock. "I told you not to do that!"_

 _The girl he was referring to flips off the branch and lands perfectly on her feet. She then walks towards him and Pairo to pick up the book off the floor._

 _"Give it back!" Kurapika stands up and attempts to take the book away from her._

 _"Why you let Pairo look at it." She turns around and moves the book further away from him._

 _"Yeah but not when he has a popsicle." Kurapika points to the sweet treat in her mouth, which was now hovering dangerously over the book._

 _"Relax it's not going to fall," She tells him when she realises what he was freaking out about._

 _"Yes it will!" Kurapika tries to grab the book again._

 _"No it won't!" She pushes him back and moves the book further away._

 _'This isn't going to end well…' Pairo thought as he sits there and watches his friends fight over the book._

 _"If you give it to me, you can still look at it!" Kurapika tries reasoning with her._

 _"Then why don't you just let me hold it and you look on?!" She responds back only to have the popsicle fall out of her mouth and onto the open page. "Ah."_

 _"Don't 'ah' me!" Kurapika takes advantage of her moment of hesitation and takes the book from her and carefully removes the popsicle from the page._

 _Luckily the page didn't rip, it was wet and sticky though._

 _"See this is why I told you to give it back to me!" Kurapika yells angrily and shows the damage to his irresponsible friend only to find her crouched down on the ground._

 _"M-my popsicle!" She cries out with tears in the corner of her eyes._

 _Kurapika could only face palm at the scene._

 _~ Flashback End ~_

Kurapika remembers being so angry that he didn't talk to her for three whole days, which he now has come to regret. She may have been a little annoying and crazy but she was his friend and he wished he could've spent more time with her and Pairo.

 ** _Crash!_**

His door was smashed open.

"Mi-tsu-ke-ta." The person he had killed appears at the door with a massive grin on his face.

"You!" Kurapika shouts at the intruder, eyes immediately glowing red. "How are you here?!" He questions him harshly. He shouldn't be here after all he, he had killed him that night in Yorkshin, it's impossible for him to be alive and in front of him now, but it looks like the logic doesn't apply here as another one of his victims from that night appears through the door.

"Stop it Uvo, remember why we're here." The woman named Paku put her hand on her companion and stops him before he jumps on Kurapika.

"She's right." A familiar voice that sent shivers down his spine came from behind her. "We're here to make him suffer."

"Kuroro Lucifer!" Kurapika's eyes spike to the brightest red possible but only for a brief moment as he remembers that he had sealed his nen.

"Ho…" The leader of the spiders starts as he notices the sudden rise then fall of his eyes. "I wouldn't let your guard down if I were you." He gets out his book and summons his indoor fish.

 _'He can use his nen?!'_ Kurapika shouts in his mind with utter disbelief, but he didn't have much time to think anymore as all three spiders were now launching an attack on him, in his own room.

Uvo runs up and jumps above him. "Big Bang Impact!" He yells before slamming his fist covered with nen down, rupturing the entire floor of the house. Kurapika had been able to jump back and dodge it. Seeing the damage to his house he had jumped higher than necessary to exit through the room through the missing roof but Kuroro wasn't going to allow it. The indoor fish from behind him swam its way towards him ready to bite off his flesh making him use his chains to propel back into his room and avoid the fish. Before he even landed, Paku had started shooting at him, which caught him off guard and let Kuroro kick him right in the gut hard enough for him to cough up a little blood.

"Gah!" The kick sent him flying backwards, smashing through the wall and tumbling out of the room until he was stopped by another wall.

Kurapika struggles just to get up and Kuroro decides to bring it upon himself to help him up… by pulling his hair. "Gah!" He shut his eyes from the pain, only to reopen them to find a barrel pointed at his face.

"See you on the other side."

Kurapika could only dangle helplessly as he watches Paku pull the trigger and hear the sound of a bullet being shot. He braces himself for the blow, but instead of a bullet in his head, he got a hard slap in the face.

"Ow!" He grabs his right cheek that was now stinging but to his surprise that was the only place that was hurting.

 _'Huh?'_

He took a quick scan of his body and found no injuries; in fact his clothes weren't even ripped.

"Kurapika!" Gon shouts with relief as his friend regains consciousness.

"Gon?" He looks down at his friend who had just hugged him.

"Do you know how worried we were?!"

Kurapika lifted his head up towards the voice and saw Leorio along with Killua and Hanzo.

"What happened?" Kurapika asks with complete confusion. It didn't make sense, one second he was in his village getting his butt handed to him by the spiders he had brought down in York Shin and the next second he was back at the exam site with his friends surrounding him.

"You were stuck in an illusion, stupid." A voice behind him decides to clarify the situation to him. When he turns around he sees Sakura standing there with her body slight turned away from him.

 _"Illusion?"_ Kurapika repeats. _The_ whole thing happening in his mind would explain why he wasn't injured at all despite the beat down he got. But he couldn't help but feel very disturbed; it all had felt so real. His village… his house… that book…

"Oi!" Maya snaps him out of his reverie by clapping in his face. "Aren't you going to thank Sakura for helping you?"

 _'For helping…'_ Kurapika tries to recall what it was that she had helped him with and when he couldn't, the stinging feeling in his face makes him realise what she might've helped him with.

"Did you slap me?" Kurapika questions Sakura.

"You can't prove that!" Sakura shouts at the accusation.

"You know it was a good thing that you slapped him right? You snapped him out of the illusion," Chase reminds her.

"Besides we all saw you did it."

"Oh yeah haha... But there's no need to thank me, I've sort of been wanting for a while now," Sakura admits.

"What do you mean you've been wanting to do it?! What has Kurapika ever done to you?!" Leorio questions Sakura angrily, offended at her confession.

"That's none of your business," Sakura answers with a smile as if what she had just said wasn't rude at all and before Leorio could get another word in she was already out earshot.

"I swear the next time I see her I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!" Leorio declares.

"Good luck with that," Maya says knowing what would happen if he was actually stupid enough to do that to Sakura.

"By the way you owe us," Chase tells Leorio and he meant it.

With that both of them takes off after Sakura who had probably already reached the finish line by now.

"We better get going too," Killua states

"I agree." Gon nods in agreement and he, Killua and Hanzo sped off as well.

"So… what did you see that made you so riled up?" Leorio enquires with all seriousness in which Kurapika could only sigh.

Seriously hasn't he known him long enough to know that there was only one thing could get him so riled up.

"Take a guess," Kurapika says then heads for the finish line like the others without giving Leorio a chance to take an actual guess.

Leorio was left dumbfounded as he had been left without getting a chance to respond, again.


	5. Chapter 4: Breaks x and x Songs

**Chapter 4: Breaks x and x Songs**

By the time Kurapika and Leorio had reached the finish line or what he assumed was the finish line taking into account that it was finally the end of the field and the collapsed hunters laying on the floor, everyone had already finished.

"About time you got here."

Kurapika sees his friends approaching him and notices that a couple of people were missing.

"If you're looking for Sakura she said she had things she needed to do and Chase was dragged away by Maya somewhere." Gon updates Kurapika on the situation.

"What thing-"

Hanzo gasps in realisation in the midst of his question. "She must be doing her other job!"

"Oh yeah didn't we find out that she was that famous idol or something." Gon says as he vaguely remembers their meeting.

"I'm starting to doubt whether that chick is actually an idol," Killua comments.

They all couldn't help but silently agree with Killua as they had already experienced a day with her and seen all her… quirks.

"Well I believe in her!" Hanzo declares before he get's out a camera and disappears.

"Oi! Wait for me!" Leorio shouts out and runs after Hanzo with his phone in hand since he didn't have a camera.

"Do they even know where she is?"

"Probably not."

"Let's go find her too!" Gon suggests excitedly not wanting to be left out.

"No way I don't want to waste my day off looking for her," Killua complains.

"Day off?" Kurapika asks confused, although it does explain why the others had already left before he even got to the finish line.

"The examiner told us that the next phase will start tomorrow morning so we could do whatever we want until then."

"Is that so."

That does make sense, now that Kurapika thinks about it they had been running the whole night without any sleep but if the examiners are nice enough to give them a break the next phase must be tough.

"Yep so I'm going to eat as much chocolate as I can!" Killua announces and runs off to find some sweet treats.

"Killua!" Gon calls out after his friend but Killua doesn't stop running. "Ah! That jerk is trying to leave me behind!" Gon completely discards the idea of finding Sakura and races angrily after Killua.

It didn't take long for Gon to catch up to Killua but of course Killua had no intention of leaving him behind in the first place. He knew that Killua had slowed down his pace so that Gon would catch up to him quickly.

"Ah." As he watches Gon hug Killua and yell out "got ya!" in the distance he realises that everyone had left to do their own thing and he was standing in the middle of the field all alone looking like a complete loner…

"I guess I'll go get something to eat."

* * *

Meanwhile Hanzo and Leorio had found Sakura but as Hanzo predicted she was right in the middle of a concert.

"Ugh! How are we going to get in?!" Leorio yells over to Hanzo over the raging crowd in front of them.

"I don't know about you but I'm going to use this!" Hanzo shows Leorio his ticket.

"Where did you get that?!"

"I pre-ordered it about 7 months ago!" Hanzo tells Leorio triumphantly.

"7 months?!"

"Yeah, otherwise they'd be sold out," Hanzo says with all seriousness.

"Sheesh! Is she that good?" Leorio asked shocked, as he couldn't imagine that weird girl being that famous of an idol.

"Of course! Now if you'll excuse me… Sakura-chan!" Hanzo shows his ticket to the security guard then races through the crowd, knocking out people that were in his way.

Music starts playing.

"So is everyone ready?" Sakura shouts from on stage to the crowd, which sends the crowd into frenzy.

"Hai!" Hanzo along with the others in the crowd shout back.

"Well then, here I go!"

Sakura starts singing.

 _"A summer breeze comes knocking again~_

 _I open up just to let in the sun~_

 _And all I hear are those fleeting tweeting notes they carry away~"_

"You're the best!" I spent the day with her you know?" Hanzo yells out and brags to the random person next to him, who completely ignores him.

* * *

Whilst Hanzo had been admitted entry into the concert, Leorio was still stuck outside with the security guards.

"Can't you guys just let me in? I happen to know her." Leorio tries to talk to the security guards into letting him in.

"No ticket. No entry." One of the security guards simple states with a stoic look on his face.

"No you don't understand. I mean I literally just spent the whole day with her," Leorio tries to further explain his connection to Sakura.

The guards just look at each other before bursting out in laughter.

"Ahahaha! Yeah and she kissed me!" One of the guards says mockingly.

"I'm serious! Just ask her!"

"Yeah, yeah we will," the guard assures Leorio sarcastically as he starts pushing him away from the gate.

But Leorio wasn't about to let himself get pushed around so he used his nen to sucker punch them both in the chin and knock them out.

"That'll teach them," Leorio remarks with a smug grin, although it was quickly erased from his face when he turns around to see Kurapika looking at him with something akin to disappointment.

"Really?"

"What they pushed me first, besides why are you here? I thought you weren't interested in idols." Leorio tries to shift the topic off him.

"First, I never said I wasn't, and second I was going to get something to eat before I saw you do… that." Kurapika explains and refers to Leorio sucker punching the guards, which was a complete waste of nen in his opinion.

"Eh, so you are interested in idols, I knew you were a man!" Leorio puts Kurapika in a headlock and rubs his fist into his hair, jokingly.

"What do you mean by 'I knew you were a man'?" Kurapika glares at Leorio a little and manoeuvres his way out of the headlock. "And yeah, I happen to enjoy listening to music, is that so wrong?"

"So you only like the music, not the idol?"

"Well it's not that…" Kurapika trails off as he catches a glimpse of Sakura on stage. She looks like she was having a lot of fun singing up there and he had to admit, this image of her fit her way better than a hunter. Why did she become a hunter anyway? She said that she didn't like fighting and she doesn't seem like she needs the money, being a famous idol and all… so why?

Kurapika couldn't help but ponder on the question his mind had stumbled upon and he completely forgot he was answering Leorio's question.

"pika… Kurapika!" Leorio claps his hands right in front of his face to snap him back to reality.

"Yeah, what?"

"You were saying 'it's not that' then drifted of into dreamland," Leorio reminds him.

"Huh? Oh right, what was the question again?"

"Just forget it and go in already, the concert might be over already!" Leorio gives up and drags him through the gates.

"Wait! Leorio, I never said that I wanted to go in!" Kurapika yells at Leorio who was currently trying to make his way through the crowd to the front.

"It'll be fun, you said you liked music right?"

"But I… oh, never mind." Kurapika decides to just go along with him as he notices that they were already more than half way to the front.

Leorio somehow manages to get both of them to the very front where they meet Hanzo who was dancing around excitedly to the music. He didn't notice them at all even when Leorio tapped him on the shoulder, in fact Hanzo unknowingly made Leorio smack himself in the face. That action made Leorio really mad and he seemed to have made it his mission to not only get Hanzo's attention but also annoy him so much that he wasn't able to concentrate on the concert. He was able to get Hanzo's attention but Hanzo wasn't about to let himself get distracted and tries to punch Leorio without taking his eyes of Sakura. The people around the backed away, only a little though, as they wanted to remain as close to the stage as possible. Kurapika just sweat drops at the scene before shifting his eyes to the person on the stage.

After watching Sakura singing and dancing on stage, he starts to understand why she would be popular. Her voice was good, her songs were nice to listen to and he had to admit she wasn't bad to look at, in fact he would say she was rather… cute. Although he couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness as he watches her singing and dancing so happily up on stage. He was reminded of his friend back at his village that had told him her dream of being the number one idol in the world. That should be her up there…

 _'Ah! What am I thinking!'_ He shouts at himself for thinking such things. It wasn't Sakura's fault for being an idol and it's not like if she wasn't an idol, that his friend would've been in her position. It just wasn't possible now.

But even with that thought in mind he still couldn't bear to look at Sakura anymore without feeling that way, so he kept his head down for the rest of the concert.

* * *

After the concert comes to an end, everyone begins filing out of the concert space disappointedly since they wanted it last longer. Kurapika, Leorio and Hanzo decided to remain just outside the gates and take a breather.

"That was awesome!" Hanzo shouts and shot his hands in the air.

"She was better than I thought," Leorio admits.

"Of course she was and how did you guys get in?" Hanzo questions both Leorio and Kurapika, remembering that Leorio didn't have a ticket and he doubted that Kurapika had any.

"We used our hunter skills to sneak in," Leorio informs Hanzo proudly, although he really shouldn't be.

"What! That's so not fair, do you know how much those tickets cost." Hanzo whines as he recalls the price. "Well I suppose it doesn't matter after all I'm happy to pay any amount to see my Sakura-chan!"

"What about me?" Sakura suddenly appears behind them.

"Gah! Where did you come from?!" Leorio splutters embarrassingly before turning around.

"Isn't that supposed to be my line? You guys are in front of my concert." Sakura brings up the point Leorio seemed to have forgotten.

"To see you sing of course!" Hanzo shouts happily. "I still can't believe I'm talking to you!" He adds so excitedly that Kurapika could've sworn he saw huge sparkles in his eyes.

"Um ok… anyway, did you guys like my concert?" Sakura asks, honestly wanting their honest opinion.

"It was alright," Leorio says, earning a punch from Hanzo.

Sakura didn't seem to get offended by Leorio's feedback and turns to Kurapika, hoping for a good comment from him.

"It was nice." Kurapika felt a little awkward in saying this since he had been thinking a lot of negative things and had practically had his head down for most of it. "By the way, don't you have other work?" He tries to change the subject so she wouldn't have the chance to ask him further questions.

"Not really, the only reason I even did this concert was because I was in the area." She answers him nonchalantly. "People just set things up for me at random. I've never actually said yes to any of them but they set things up for me anyways."

"Isn't that a really bad way of doing things and how does the ticket thing work then?" Kurapika asks curiously.

"Well the tickets are valid anywhere and I find it easier this way. I'm pretty busy with hunter things and I don't know where the job will take me. Besides I don't like set things, I'm a more 'go with the flow' kind of person," Sakura explains in a very nonchalant manner.

"Ok now I believe you're the same person," Leorio says after hearing her explanation and seeing how it reflected her behaviour in the previous phases.

"What kind of hunter are you?" Kurapika asks as that part peaked his interest.

"I'm a blacklist hunter," Sakura replies casually.

"Why?!" Hanzo yells, as he didn't want his idol doing such a dangerous job.

"Why not? There are bad people in this world who need to be caught," Sakura simply states.

"But that doesn't mean you have to do it. There are a lot of other blacklist hunters," Hanzo tries to reason with Sakura.

"Well there are some criminals only I can catch," Sakura says, her eyes turning serious.

"You don't mean the… Genei Ryodan?" Leorio cuts in with a question that catches Kurapika's entire attention.

"Huh, of course not! You've got to be absolutely insane to take on those monsters!" Sakura shouts with exaggeration.

"Hear that Kurapika? She thinks you're _absolutely_ insane," Leorio nudges him.

"Don't tell me you actually tried to catch them?" Sakura asks him with more concern than shock.

"Didn't you hear about Yorkshin?"

"That was you? Why did you do that?" Now she sounded more angry than worried. "You could've died!"

"You've heard about the massacre of the kurata clan right? Well I happen to be the only survivor and it's my duty to avenge my brethren," Kurapika answers swiftly.

Kurapika's prompt answer causes Sakura to become silent. There were a lot of things she could've said back but with the things the way they are now she couldn't possibly say them.

"Well, the important thing is that he's alive and he's focusing on finding his brethren's eyes right now so…" Leorio cuts in, trying to get away from the topic as soon as possible. He gestures to Sakura to stop talking about this by making swiping movements in front of his neck and shaking his head.

"I get it!" Sakura says, a little more forceful than she meant to. "Sorry, I just… don't like the thought of a friend dying."

"…You consider me a friend?" Kurapika asks doubtfully, after all they had only met yesterday.

 _'Crap!'_ Sakura realizes her mistake. She quickly tries to think of a way to fix it, only to find out that she didn't need to say anything.

"Oh, so you're one of those people," Leorio comments.

"Eh?"

"You know, the people who thinks everyone they meet as their friend."

"Uh, sure." Sakura decides to go along with Leorio's strange theory.

"So does that mean you think of me as you friend?" Hanzo asks excitedly.

"Um… I guess."

"Yes!"

"What's with all the yelling?" Killua suddenly appears.

"Did something good happen?" Gon pops out from behind Killua.

"We're friends now!" Hanzo announces and puts his arm around Sakura.

"No fair, I want to be friends too!" Gon jumps towards them and hugs Sakura.

"Both of you get off, you're hurting her." Leorio tries to pry them off Sakura.

"I can't breathe!" Sakura yells out as Hanzo was now squeezing her shoulders whilst Gon was hugging her waist very tightly, squeezing the air out of her and Leorio was only making them squeeze tighter.

This didn't last long though since they all lost their balance and fell to the ground. They all looked at each other and started laughing.

"Idiots." Killua says with a smile.

Kurapika felt compelled to smile himself. He was relieved that the conversation with Sakura about him trying to catch the Genei Ryodan was over, he didn't mind telling her about it but she seemed to act how Gon, Killua and Leorio did. While he was grateful to have such caring friends, he felt that it was better if she didn't get involved in his affairs.

"So when you guys are finished, how about we all go get something to eat?" Kurapika suggest, remembering he didn't get the chance to earlier and he doubts the others did either.

"Sure," Hanzo says as he picks himself off the floor then extends a hand out to Sakura.

"Sounds good," Leorio agrees.

"Will there be chocolate?" Killua asks, imaginary cat ears popping out.

"Killua you just ate a whole bunch earlier." Gon points out to him.

"You can never have enough chocolate," Sakura cuts in.

"I like you a little more by you saying that," Killua says.

"Let's take a look around town for a good restaurant and I'm sure they'll all have desserts." Kurapika proposes to which, everyone agrees to.

They start walking around the town, looking at the menus and looking through the windows to see what kind of restaurant it was before deciding to go in. They looked at a couple of restaurants but not everyone agreed on it so they continue their search deeper into town until they arrive at a certain café.

"Gah!" Gon yells and backs away from the window of the café.

"What's wrong?" Killua asks but doesn't bother waiting for an answer and looks into the café himself.

When he sees what probably shocked Gon, he doesn't back away but he also doesn't say anything and just stares. This made everyone else curious so they all decide to follow Killua's example and look through the window.

"Whoa, is that?" Hanzo starts.

"I think it is." Leorio responds.

"What do you people think you're doing?" A voice from behind them spoke.

"Gah!" They all yelled when they had turned around and saw Maya behind them.

"How did you- you were sitting over there just a second ago."

"She used her nen ability." Chase appears beside them.

"Gah! Stop doing that!" Leorio shouts at Chase angrily.

"You know I just walked here right?" Chase asks, confused as to why he was shocked at him. "Anyway, why don't we take this inside, you guys are kind of causing a scene." Chase hints to the people around them who were all staring.

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience," Kurapika apologizes to the people then quickly guides his friends inside.

* * *

Luckily there was a vacant big table inside and they were able to change tables in accordance to the number of people without any problems.

"So, what were you guys doing here?"

"What does it look like? We're having lunch," Maya answers, a little annoyed that they had interrupted her lunchtime.

"That doesn't mean you eat each others faces!" Gon shouts with flailing arms.

"He does know what kissing is right?" Chase asks Killua who only shrugs in response.

"We're dating, so of course we kiss." Maya says candidly.

"You two are dating?!" Everyone yells out in shock.

"Why are you shocked?" Chase refers to Sakura.

"I felt like it was the right reaction." Sakura shrugs.

"Anyway, what's wrong with us dating." Maya asks, irritation clear in her voice.

"Well it's just that you're… and he's…" Leorio bravely starts only to receive a death glare from Maya, which only worsened with every word he said. "…Nothing."

"Why don't we order some food?" Chase suggests while trying to calm Maya down.

"Sure."

They all told Chase their individual orders who in turn places in their orders for them to a waiter.

When their food arrived at the table, they all couldn't help but stare at the cake in the middle.

"Stop staring at my lunch." Sakura picks up the cake and places it in front of her.

"Are you serious? You can't have that for lunch," Leorio states incredulously.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to live," Sakura retorts.

"But still…" Kurapika begins but is stopped by Chase who puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head.

 **Flash!**

"Did you just take a photo of me?" Sakura asks Hanzo who wasn't trying to hide his camera at all.

"Yep, you're so cute!" Hanzo replies and continues taking more photos from all kinds of different angles.

"Oi, send those to me too," Leorio says.

"Why?"

"So I can sell them," Leorio responds without shame, he could feel the money already.

"Don't bother, people won't believe that it's me," Sakura informs him.

"What, why not?!"

"Haven't you noticed how I'm not even wearing a disguise yet no one has come up to me, with the exception of this guy." Sakura points to Hanzo who was still taking photos even with this information, since he had no intention of selling any of his photos of Sakura anyway.

"Now that you mention it… why is that?"

"It's just in a person's nature not to be able to recognize something if they are seen in a different circumstance. This works well for me so I just go with it."

"That was a deep explanation."

"Yeah well, that's just how it is, honestly people can be so stupid sometimes." Sakura stabs her fork down into her cake, which made Kurapika jump a little.

 _'Why did it feel like that was directed at me?'_ Kurapika thought.

"Okay… so anyway, what do you guys think the next phase will be?" Chase decides to clear the air by asking a question that relates to all of them.

"Oh, not this again," Leorio groans.

"Did I say something wrong?" Chase asks confused as to what part of his question could've possibly made Leorio look so dejected.

"No, it's just at our original hunter exam, that question was also asked and some idiot told us what he thought. We all believed him only to find out he was completely wrong. I ended up studying for nothing!" Leorio shouts the last part out angrily, as he remembers the pain.

"I don't think writing out cheat notes counts as studying…"

"I still read the things before writing it down didn't I!" Leorio defends himself.

"Anyway, what's your nen ability?" Killua disregards Leorio and turns to Maya, still wondering how she was able to sneak up on him, outside the shop earlier.

"Hah? Why should I tell you-"

"Maya can create portals to anywhere she's been before or to anyone she's come into contact with." Sakura cuts in and answers for her friend.

"Sakura! Don't just tell him!" Maya yells at Sakura, as she did not want potential enemies to know her abilities.

"What, he's gonna find out later anyway."

"How does she make the portals?"

"Oh, she-"

Maya stops Sakura from revealing any more information on her abilities by stuffing a huge chunk of her steak into Sakura's mouth.

"Gah! It burns!" Sakura yells, as she makes very dramatic choking actions before falling off her chair.

"…Don't tell me she doesn't eat meat." Leorio asks with disbelief and wonders how she was even alive.

"Honestly… I have no idea," Chase replies while shaking his head.

"That sounds like a really handy ability." Kurapika turns to Maya, deciding to ignore what just happened with Sakura.

"Thanks," Maya thanks him for the compliment, although he could tell she didn't really care what he thought.

Seeing as how well it worked with Maya, Killua tries to ask about Chase's abilities but immediately received a 'don't you even try' look from him, which was surprisingly terrifying.

"Why don't you guys tell us your nen abilities now, since me and Maya have already told you ours." Sakura proposes when she had recovered from eating the meat by balancing the taste out with a lot of cake.

"Huh? What makes you think that just because you told us your abilities, we'll tell you our-"

"I have the ability to focus my nen around my fist and make it a super punch and I can also make blades from two fingers and release a bunch of aura from my palm. I thought of it using Janken!" Gon answers without hesitation.

"Gon-"

"Killua can change his aura into electricity, Leorio punches one thing but make it so it comes from a totally different place and Kurapika has these five cool chains that each have their own ability and he also gets crazy powerful when his eyes turn red-"

"Gon!"

"Ah." Gon covers his mouth with his hands and looks over to Kurapika with an apologetic look.

"It's fine, it's not like my scarlet eyes I'm keeping my scarlet eyes a secret." Kurapika reassures Gon.

"Whoa, wait. Aren't scarlet eyes those creepy red eyes that are worth over two billion jenny?"

"2 billion?!" Maya yells out in shock but sits back down when she the attention her outburst received. "Where did you get that kind of cash?"

"I didn't buy them, I was born with them. I'm a kurata."

"A what?"

"They were the massacred clan mentioned in the last question of the second phase of the exam." Chase tries to act knowledgeable by mentioning the only place he's heard about the 'kurata'

"Oh Chase, it's cute to see you try and look like you know stuff when you don't." Sakura, who had remained silent, finally speaks up.

"Oh and you do?"

"Well, she did get the last question right, which shows she knows more than any of you." Maya brings up a good point.

"Wasn't that just a guess?" Kurapika asks, a little offended that Maya said there was someone else who knew more about the kurata, when he was the only _actual_ kurata.

"Yeah, it was," Sakura says and abruptly gets up from her chair. "Any who, I'm going to get more cake."

"Geh, how did you finish the whole cake already?!" Leorio says, dumbfounded at the sight of her clean, empty plate.

"Don't doubt the sweets master!" Sakura proclaims and gladly leaves the table to avoid further questioning on the topic she never wanted brought up ever again. Although honestly, she didn't know whether to be relieved or seriously pissed Kurapika hadn't noticed yet. Was he seriously that much of an idiot to not notice such suspicious signs?

 _'Well it's not like I really want him to find out…'_ She sighs and stares at the array of cakes and sweet pastries in the display cases at the counter.

It's better for Kurapika to remain oblivious, for both her sake and his.


	6. Chapter 5: Battle x of x Nens

**Chapter 5: Battle x of x Nens**

All the hunters who had passed the first three phases were given lodgings for the night. It had been privately booked with all the passing hunters' names so the hunters who failed wouldn't be able to sneak in. The night had been pretty uneventful but they all knew that it was the morning they really had to worry about.

When the morning came, they were directed to the site of the fourth phase, which turned out to be an arena.

"Ok, is everyone here?" Beans asks through the microphone and when no one objects he continues to explain the fourth phase. "As you might have all guessed, the fourth phase will feature battles. The winner is decided when a person loses consciousness or if someone surrenders and the examiner for this phase will be-" He was stopped midsentence when something, or someone rather, crashes down to the ground in front of him.

"Hohoho that would be me," Netero announces with the microphone he had swiped from Beans.

"Chairman!"

The mutterings and whispers begin amongst the crowd but soon die out as the answer to the question on everyone's minds was answered.

"To put it simply, I'm here to make sure there are no unnecessary deaths," the chairman states simply.

Beans grabs the microphone back from Netero and continues with his explanation. "In this phase each hunter will be paired with another hunter with the same nen type. You are allowed to use other weapons as well as your nen abilities. Each of you will only fight one battle so you will only have one chance to win." Beans proceeds to reveal six boxes. "I will decide the pairs by pulling out two names at a time from each of these boxes."

The first two names Beans pulls out were Gon and Leorio.

"What we have to fight each other?!" Leorio shouts with clear disapproval in his tone.

"You're just bitter because you know Gon will kick your ass," Killua says casually.

"Killua!" Gon yells at Killua.

"What, we're all thinking it." Killua shrugs.

Everyone goes silent and tries to avoid eye contact with Leorio.

"I'll remember this," Leorio states sourly.

A couple other pairs were pulled out before Beans pulls Killua and Chase.

Neither of them objects the match up, however the same couldn't be said for a certain someone in the back.

"Che, I wanted a chance at my little apple," A voice says in disappointment.

They all knew whom that voice belonged to and a big shiver runs down Killua's spine as soon as he hears it.

"Good thing I don't have to fight him," Killua mumbles under his breath.

The next people in their group to be picked were Maya and Hanzo.

"So you're a conjurer," Kurapika comments on Hanzo's nen type, based on Maya's nen type.

"Oh yeah, you never told us you nen abilities did you." Gon and the others realize.

"Well ninjas are supposed to keep their techniques secret."

"Great so he knows my abilities but I don't know his." Maya glares at Sakura.

"Haha… at least I didn't tell him your wea-"

Maya stopped Sakura from saying anymore by pegging the closest object, which happened to be a small rock, at her. It hit her right on the forehead.

The next and last pair Beans picks out was Kurapika and Sakura.

"Are you okay?" Kurapika offers a hand to Sakura who was still on the ground, rubbing the red bump on her forehead.

"Ow… yeah," Sakura assures Kurapika and gladly accepts his hand.

"At least now you're both even." Killua refers to the physical handicap Maya has given Sakura in comparison to the knowledge handicap Sakura gave to Maya.

Gon and Leorio's battle was up first. They both stay in the arena whilst the others and the rest of the hunters go up to the stands. Netero stays in the arena as well whilst Beans goes up to the announcer's box located in the middle of the stands.

"Hohoho you boys ready?" Netero asks.

"Yeah," Leorio replies unenthusiastically.

"Let's do this!" Gon shouts excitedly, his reaction completely overshadowing Leorio's.

"Hohoho alright then, on my signal ready, set… fight!" Netero announces before jumping out of the way of Gon and Leorio.

"Just so you know Gon, I'm not going easy on you just because we're friends," Leorio warns Gon.

"Same here."

"Well then here I go!"

Leorio punches the ground beneath him and uses his nen to make it so his punch comes out from the ground underneath Gon. Gon easily dodges the punch by jumping back but Leorio had expected this and punches the ground again with his other hand. This time his punch comes out from one of the pieces of the floor that had been scattered around Gon from his first punch. His fist hit Gon straight across the face and sends him flying to the ground but Leorio doesn't stop there. He keeps pummeling the ground beneath him and making them come out from the pieces of the floor around Gon.

"That was a smart move," Kurapika comments.

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of creating the first warp hole on the surface of the floor, Leorio created it under the floor so that when he punched up the floor would shatter."

"Oh, I see."

"Hmph, Gon won't let this do him in," Killua says with confidence in his best friend. "Come on Gon! Get out of that and kick his ass!"

Just like Killua said, Gon was able to stop Leorio's rain of attacks by focusing his aura into his hand and catching one of Leorio's punches just before it hit him. He then grabs hold of Leorio's wrist and pulls him through the warp hole. Once Leorio was all the way though, Gon proceeds to gather his aura in his leg and kick him straight in the gut and sends him flying across the arena and into the wall.

"Gah!" Leorio cries out in pain.

The kick was so hard that Leorio was now stuck in the wall and when he was finally able to crack open one of his eyes, he saw Gon preparing for his signature attack.

"First is rock… Janken…Pa!

Aura projects from the palm of Gon's hand; Leorio covers his body with aura for protection but it wasn't enough and he was smashed further into the wall behind him. The wall had been smashed so hard that it shatters to the point where it was unable to support Leorio anymore and he was sent falling down to the ground unconscious.

"Gon is the winner as Leorio is unable to fight," Netero announces the result of the battle.

Gon goes over to Leorio to wake him up "Are you okay?"

"Ugh…yeah." Leorio responds slowly when he starts to come around.

"Sorry Leorio, I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"What, that was nothing! Don't worry about it!" Leorio reassures Gon even though his legs were still shaking.

* * *

It was time for Killua and Chase's battle.

"Don't worry I'll end this quickly," Killua says with a cocky tone.

"Better not get your hopes up," Chase responds just as confident.

"Ready, set… fight!" Netero announces.

Killua immediately sneaks up behind Chase and goes in for a chop, unfortunately Chase notices him and turns around and smacks his hand away before jumping back to put some distance between them. Seeing Chase trying to distance himself, Killua gathers his aura, which he transmutes into electricity, to his hands then slams his palms down on the ground to release the electricity through the floor. The electricity courses through the floor, destroying a path directly to Chase. He jumps up in the air to avoid getting electrocuted and gathers his own aura to his hands, which he transmutes into fire and forms into the shape of a ball. He combines the two and throws it down at Killua. Killua dodges the fireball by side stepping to the side then he throws thunderbolts back at Chase and since Chase was still in mid air, he wasn't able to move out of the way and Killua's attack hits him dead on.

"Agh!" Chase yelps before falling down with smoke trailing behind him and crashing into the floor. He lies on the ground, still twitching at times from the leftover electricity that was still coursing through his body.

Seeing this Killua turns around to leave the arena as he thought he had won the battle already, but he was soon proven wrong when he steps on the spot where Chase's previous fireball had hit and was immediately engulfed in flames.

"Killua!" Gon shouts from the stands.

Killua tries moving away from the spot where the fire first appeared but that didn't stop the fire from burning him.

"It's pointless to run," Chase tells Killua as he pushes himself off the ground. "The fire will continue to burn you no matter where you go."

"What does he mean by that?" Kurapika turns to Sakura for some answers.

"Use gyo and you'll see," Sakura replies.

Kurapika did as Sakura told and gathers his aura to his eyes. He looks over to Killua and saw a barrier type thing surrounding him and the fire.

"He's using his aura to trap the fire and Killua together."

"Ping pong. The moment Killua stepped on that spot, Chase released the aura he had stored in that spot and transmuted half into fire to cover Killua then the rest to trap him inside with the fire," Sakura confirms and elaborates further.

"Is there any way for him to get out?" Kurapika asks.

"Well, he could've released a stronger aura than Chase's from his entire body but I don't think that's possible now," Sakura comments as she watches Killua struggling with Chase's flames.

Kurapika confirms Sakura's assumption by looking over to Killua who was now on his knees, struggling for air.

"Hmph, that's what the kid gets for being cocky," Maya remarks.

Not long after, Killua wasn't able to stand being burned any longer and collapses on the ground. Seeing this, Chase releases his nen and falls flat on his back. Killua had made him use a lot more nen than he initially planned to.

Chase was deemed the winner as Killua lost consciousness first.

* * *

Maya and Hanzo enter the arena.

"I'm telling you now I'm not going to go easy on you just because Sakura-chan's friend," Hanzo warns Maya.

"And I'm not going easy on you just because I feel sorry for your baldness," Maya replies irritably. _'Seriously, who does he think he is?'_

"Wha-this was a choice!" Hanzo defends himself.

Sparks were seen flying before the starting signal was even given and when it was, all hell broke loose.

"Ready, set… start!"

Hanzo immediately reveals his hidden blade on his arm whilst Maya takes out her scythe. They both charge at each other and clash in the middle. Hanzo was superior in strength and so he was able to push Maya's scythe out of the way and kick her in the side. Maya blocks the kick with her arm but the blow still sent her sliding across the ground. She was able to stand her ground and throw her scythe at Hanzo, who easily dodges her attack but that was what she was aiming for. When Hanzo sidesteps to the side she was right there to give him a kick to the face. Hanzo was able to block her kick with his arm but that didn't stop her from continuing her barrage of attacks. After her kick was blocked, she follows with a punch but once again Hanzo blocks her attack by grabbing her fist before it reaches his face.

Maya continues throwing punches and kicks, which were continually blocked but that didn't faze her as this was going exactly according to plan. As Hanzo was concentrating on blocking her attacks, he completely forgot about the scythe she had thrown at the start, which had boomeranged itself around and was set on a direct course at him. By the time he noticed the scythe was already really close to him and Maya wasn't about to let him get away. She grabs his arms to hold him in place and waits for her scythe to hit.

"Looks like this is the end," Maya says confidently.

The scythe finally seemed to have connected with Hanzo but one thing was off, there was no blood coming out from him at all.

 _'How?'_ Maya peeks from behind Hanzo and finds out the reason why there was no blood. Hanzo had conjured up a chain from his back and circled it around her scythe _'This can't be-'_

Hanzo ends the battle by hitting the back of Maya's neck, which causes her eyes to go blank and she collapse on the ground.

"Maya!" Sakura yells from the stands at the sight of her friend lying face down on the ground.

"What! No! I just knocked her out-" Hanzo flails his arms around when he sees Sakura's distressed state.

Kurapika immediately hugs Sakura before Hanzo could even finish his explanation. Sakura's eyes widen at Kurapika's actions but she quickly recovers from the shock.

"Uh…yeah, I just don't like the sight of my friend like that, is all." Sakura gives Kurapika a smile to show him that she was fine. "Anyway… how long do you think you're going to keep hugging me?"

"Eh? Oh, sorry!" Kurapika quickly let go and steps back from her.

"Pff, why're you apologizing?" Sakura laughs.

Kurapika really couldn't think of a response back to her, in fact he didn't even know why he hugged her in the first place. Why he felt like he needed to comfort her and acted on reflex.

 _'Wait, could this be what people call… love?'_ Kurapika thought. _'No no no!'_ He doesn't have the time or the need for love in his life right now, and besides he was too old to fall in love at first sight. It was probably because he didn't like seeing people upset, especially if he knew them.

* * *

The final battle for the fourth phase was Kurapika against Sakura.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asks as she had notices that Kurapika had been trying his best to avoid eye contact with her ever since he hugged her.

 _'It can't be that he finally found out, could it?!'_ This thought that pops into Sakura's mind. But if he really did, he would've done something by now so that probably wasn't it. But then again it has been a quite a long time, maybe he was that kind of person now. On the other hand, she was a pretty good judge of character and he didn't seem like-

"Sakura!" Kurapika snaps Sakura out of her reverie.

"Huh, what?" She looks over to the source of the sound, which was Kurapika and for some reason when their eyes met, he grew red and immediately looked away.

"Eh?"

"Hohoho. While I understand the two of you are at the peak of your youth, we have to start the battle," Netero cuts in. "Will you guys be able to fight?"

Whilst Sakura only gets even more confused with the addition of Netero's words, Kurapika grows a darker shade of red.

"…Yes?" Sakura answers hesitantly as she didn't know why he would think she couldn't fight.

Netero looks over to Kurapika who had managed to calm down and give a nod of approval. _'Ugh! Okay, let's just focus on the battle right now.'_ He clears his thoughts and readies himself for the upcoming battle.

"Hohoho then let the battle commence. Ready, set… fight!"

Neither of them moves from their spot when the starting signal was given. They were both not one to make the first move in a battle, however Sakura had less patience than Kurapika and cracks first.

"Fine, if you're not gonna come I will," Sakura declares and conjures up her cherry blossom petals to form a pistol, which she then proceeds to shoot Kurapika with.

Kurapika easily blocks the bullets by lodging them in between the chains he swung in front of himself and drops them all on the floor in front of Sakura.

"It's going to take more than that to hit me."

"Then how about this."

Sakura conjures up bullets, to reload her first pistol, along with another pistol she created. She shot a bullet each at Kurapika who easily blocks them again with his chain but as soon as he blocks those bullets another two immediately came his way.

 _'How?'_ Kurapika blocks one with his chain and dodges the other one. In the midst of his dodge, he looks over to Sakura who was completely unarmed. At least that's what he thought until two pistols fell into her hands not even a second later. _'Crap!'_ He jumps back evade the bullets and create some distance between them. This action also allowed him to get a clearer view of Sakura and that's when he sees that she was shooting at him with _four_ guns.

"Ahahaha not so easy blocking these is it?" Sakura jeers at Kurapika.

Kurapika would've gotten mad at Sakura for taunting him if not for him having to use all of his concentration just to avoid getting hit. All of her shots seemed to be aimed at his vital points, which was really annoying… and scary.

 _'I have to stop that crazy accurate aim of hers,'_ Kurapika concludes, and with that thought in mind, he jumps up in the air then slams his dowsing chain down on the ground. He powers it up further with his aura so the chain was able to shatter the ground and send big chunks flying everywhere. _'This should take away some of her sight and decrease her accuracy.'_

Unluckily for him, his plan proves to be completely useless and actually ends up helping Sakura instead.

As soon as Kurapika smashes the floor to bits, Sakura reverts all her pistols back to petals then reforms them into rifle. Due to the pieces of the ground in her way she wasn't able to aim for a vital spot, not that she would if she could in this situation where Kurapika was completely unaware that he was a sitting duck. She opted for his right arm, which had his chains instead. When she had a clear shot to her desired target, she immediately pulled the trigger.

 **Bang!**

Kurapika was only able to catch a glimpse of Sakura smirking with a rifle aimed right at him before a bullet lodges itself in his arm.

"Gah!" Kurapika cries out in pain and grips his bleeding arm but he wasn't given any time to rest as another bullet was coming his way. Although this time, he was able to redirect this bullet with his chain but it still managed to nick his cheek. He continues to redirect the following bullets, keeping the damage he receives to that of shallow cuts. He was waiting for the moment when Sakura needed to reload and when that moment came he swiftly extends his dowsing chain towards Sakura. At this point most the pieces of the ground had all fallen back to the ground so he was easily able to maneuver his chain all the way to her. On top of that, she had been so distracted with reloading her gun that she didn't even notice his chain around her arm until he tightens his grip and pulls her towards him.

"Yes! You got her now Kurapika! There's no way she can beat you at close range!" Leorio yells out, taking into account the weapons Sakura had used in the battle so far.

"Hah, what are you talking about? Sakura is way better at close combat than long range combat," Chase corrects Leorio.

"Eh?" Leorio looks back down at the fight and sees Kurapika tumbling across the floor. "What happened?!" He yells in shock.

"While you weren't looking, Sakura grabbed the chain pulling her towards Kurapika and pulled on it so that Kurapika would come flying towards her. Then she kicked him across the face and sent him tumbling across the ground," Chase explains.

"Hmph, I don't get why she didn't just conjure up a sword and end it there," Maya remarks.

"She can use a sword?" Gon joins in the conversation.

"Yeah, she was pretty good too. I personally think that she was better with a sword than a gun," Chas admits.

"Did she stop using it?" Killua asks as he picks up Chase's use of past tense in his answer.

"Yeah, she stopped when she learned how to control her nen and conjure things up at will," Chase replies.

"Why did she stop?"

"Who knows, one day she told us that 'guns were awesome' and I haven't seen her use a sword since," Maya jumps in and answers instead of Chase.

"She's a very… special person isn't she." Leorio comments only to receive a punch on the head from Hanzo and Maya.

Meanwhile back in the arena, Sakura was walking up to Kurapika, who was still on the ground, to deliver the finishing blow. She bends down and goes to pull him up, but before she reaches him, Kurapika's hand shoots up and grabs her arm. She wasn't that surprised by this action, it was only when her gaze lands on his eyes that made her freeze up. It was faint due to the black contacts but she could still see it, the red in his eyes.

Kurapika feels Sakura approaching him and waits for her to get close enough for him to attack. Luckily for him, Sakura takes it upon herself to extend her arm towards him and he gladly takes the opportunity. He grabs hold of her arm and pulls her down to his level. Their eyes met and what he sees wasn't the little shock he expected in her eyes. For some reason her eyes had contracted in what looked like fear as soon as they met with his. He didn't think much of it and takes advantage of her frozen state and slammed her on the ground, reversing their roles. He holds his chain at her neck as a sign of his win, it didn't technically mean it was his win but Sakura didn't seem like the type who wouldn't accept this method of loss.

"…I give up."

* * *

Phase four was now officially over and the hunters who had lost their battles started filing out of the arena.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Beans yells out from the speakers to stop the hunters from leaving. "There is still the final phase!"

"So that has nothing to do with us," the people who had lost respond bitterly.

"Hohoho but it does." Netero takes over for Beans "None of you were eliminated from the exam."

Netero's announcement causes a lot of bewildered expressions from everyone in the room.

"What do you mean?" Leorio was the first to ask.

"Just what I said,"

"Then what was the point of this phase?" Killua asks, still annoyed at his loss.

"Well, for one it was for you to test out your nen abilities against similar opponents but it's main purpose was to set up the final phase." Netero explains to everyone, but they were still looking at him with puzzled looks. "I can see that you are all confused so allow me explain properly. The final phase is to obtain a valuable item and will be completed in the pairs you were in for the fourth phase. The winner decides what the item is and is allowed to keep the item once the exam is over. There are no restrictions to what you can choose except that it has to be worth over one billion jenny."

None of the hunters were fazed by the price the item needed to be, but many were very displeased with the fact that they had to work in their previous pairs, mainly the losers.

"This is stupid, I don't want to look for what he wants," Maya protests, referring to Hanzo.

"You haven't even heard what I want yet."

"What do you want?" Gon asks curiously.

"Sakura-chan's very first demo!" Hanzo proclaims with enthusiasm.

"I like how you say that with no shame at all…"

"Wait, wouldn't you have that?" Leorio questions Sakura.

"No, I wasn't the one who even made it," Sakura answers then looks over to Chase to shift the attention to him.

"Well, I recorded her singing one time and sent it to a random record studio. I didn't actually think it would get accepted but it did and I've never gotten it back. No idea where it is now," Chase explains while sheepishly scratches the back of his head.

"I don't think it matters anyway, there's no way it's worth one billion yen."

"I've got every Sakura-chan merchandise there is except for her demo since it was marketed at 700,000 jenny the last time I checked. I'm certain it's gone up to a billion jenny by now. I will finally have it!" Hanzo was so excited he didn't notice he was drooling at the thought.

Maya stands in front of Sakura and backs her away from Hanzo.

"Anyway, I'm guessing you're aiming for the scarlet eyes," Chase turns to Kurapika.

"Of course, I was looking for them before this exam anyway. What are you going to aim for?" Kurapika asks in return.

"Me? Uh… I don't know, I can't really think of anything."

"Me either. I don't really want anything over a billion jenny," Gon agrees.

"Then why don't you just hunt someone with a bounty over a billion jenny." Hisoka chimes in from behind Gon.

Although all of them knew he would pass, his presence still made them jump, especially Gon who he was right behind.

"H-Hisoka!"

"Hello Gon," Hisoka greets him with a creepy grin.

"Where's your partner?" Kurapika asks, as he doesn't see anyone close to him.

"I killed him," Hisoka says nonchalantly.

"But don't you need him?"

"Since I won, no. I can easily obtain an item on my own."

"I suppose that's true."

"By the way… you." Hisoka turns to Sakura and questions her. "Why were you using guns in your fight?"

"Eh?" Sakura was caught of guard by Hisoka's question. _'I didn't conjure up any swords in the fight right?'_

"You're a swordsman aren't you?"

"Oi oi oi, how the hell does this bastard know, did you guys tell him?!" Maya yells at them in a whisper voice.

"Of course not! He just has some crazy weird sense thing!" Leorio yells back quietly.

"I think it's called perception…" Kurapika correct Leorio.

"Well I prefer guns now," Sakura answers Hisoka confidently, though she was dying from the pressure inside.

"Go back to swords," Hisoka demands.

"Don't want to," Sakura responds immediately.

Everyone unconsciously holds their breath when Sakura defied Hisoka, but Hisoka didn't do anything. People who don't cower in fear and stand up to him gave him a thrill but he decides to let it slide and ask her another question.

"And, why did you freeze up in the end?"

"I was actually wondering about that too," Kurapika joins in.

"Oh that… that was because… of your eyes," Sakura answers hesitantly.

Kurapika thought about what she meant by that and finally realizes what most likely happened. "Are you… afraid of my scarlet eyes?" He questions her slowly.

"What, no. They just remind me of some really bad things…"

"Pff, like anything that horrible ever happened that you would freeze up at a mere reminder."

"Leorio!" Gon yells at him for his insensitivity.

"It's fine, I'm not one to dwell on the past. There's nothing left for me there anyways." Sakura says the last part with a little sad smile.


	7. Chapter 6: Scarlet x Eyes x Found

**Chapter 6: Scarlet x Eyes x Found**

The next day everyone went their separate ways in the pairs of their battle matchup the other day so now it was only Kurapika and Sakura. It was still pretty awkward to be around her especially now when they were alone. He tries to busy himself with finding information on the location of the nearest scarlet eyes but it seemed that he would have to face the situation from yesterday again.

"Do you hate me?" Sakura suddenly asks.

Kurapika was taken aback by her straightforwardness.

"I don't hate you." Kurapika assures Sakura.

"Really, because you seem like you do."

"…How so?"

"Well yesterday, you wouldn't make any eye contact with me and today I'm getting the vibe you really don't want to be near me." Sakura informs him, she had seen how he had sighed and noticed that the only words he had spoken to her was work related.

"Well yesterday was…" Kurapika trails off as he thought about his love struck phase. "That's not the point, aren't you the one who doesn't want to be near me."

Sakura knew that Kurapika was referring to the way she reacted to his scarlet eyes yesterday.

"I thought I told you that, that was nothing against you personally." _'Well only a little.'_ Sakura only voices the last part in her mind.

"Well when people react that way to you, you tend to think they dislike you."

Sakura stops walking and turns around. She grabs Kurapika's collar and brings, brought it right up to her and stares into his eyes.

"See, I'm fine," Sakura tells him even though he really wasn't, blood had immediately rushed to his face.

"You're really hot for some reason. Are you okay?" Sakura asks when the heat transfers to her hands. Her initial thought was that he had a fever so she leans in closer to touch their foreheads together so she could estimate his temperature.

"Y-Y-Yeah, I'm okay! I'm alright!" Kurapika panics and pushes Sakura away, which causes a confused look on her face.

 _'_ _What's happening to me?!'_ Kurapika shouts internally.

"Um… Kurapika-"

"Hey! We should probably get a move on, our destination is still a very long way away!" Kurapika speed walks past her.

"Wait, we had a time limit?!" Sakura yells and chases after Kurapika.

* * *

Even with Kurapika's added motivation, they still had not arrived at their destination on their first day and had to stay the night at a random town on the way.

"We would like a room to stay for the night," Kurapika tells the receptionist at a local inn.

"Sure, that will be 10,000 jenny."

Kurapika hands in the money and was given the key to their room in return.

"Enjoy your honeymoon~" The receptionist yells out on their way to their room.

"Our what?" Sakura stops and turns back to the receptionist, whilst Kurapika was still too preoccupied with the incident before that he didn't hear her and just proceeds to walk to their room. His shock came later when he opens the door to their room.

"Why is there only one bed?" Kurapika asks dubiously.

"She thinks we're on out honeymoon…"

"Our what?!"

"That's what I said!" Sakura shouts back with flailing arms.

"I'm going to talk to the reception lady about this."

Kurapika storms out the door only to come back defeated a few moments later.

"…They're all booked out… I can't believe they thought we were a couple."

"I can't believe they thought you were a guy."

"I am a guy!"

"Yeah I know, but you look…" Sakura starts before Kurapika gives her a death glare "Never mind."

"Haah, what are we going to do now?" Kurapika sighs.

"What do you mean?" Sakura tilts her head in confusion.

"Were you not here a few moments ago?" Kurapika gestures to the one bed in the room.

"Yeah and?"

"We can't sleep in one bed together!"

"Why not? People do it all the time."

"But we're not… a couple."

"So?"

"So it's weird for us to sleep in the same bed together!"

"Kurapika, stop being such an old-fashioned fart."

"…O-Old fashioned fart?" Kurapika stutters at the weird insult.

"Look the only problem that I can sort of see with us sleeping in the same would be if we had actual feelings for each other, which we don't," Sakura explains.

"R-Right! We definitely don't, I definitely don't have feelings for you, none whatsoever." Kurapika blurts out in a flustered state.

"Um…ok, dramatic much." Sakura brushes Kurapika's frazzled response off and walks towards the door. "I'm going to get some snacks."

 _'_ _Thank god she's dense!'_ Kurapika thought with relief but in turn, Sakura's under reaction causes him to focus on his reaction. He thought he would've gotten over his stupid feelings. Why did his hormonal instincts have to act up now, just because she was a little strong and a little cute- _'Whoa, stop right there!'_ Since when did he care about someone's looks, especially hers, with her stupid pink hair and her stupid smile and her stupid eyes, which seems to sparkle whenever the light reflects off them…

"Hey, did you want anything?" Sakura peeks in through the door.

Kurapika jumps as the very person he was thinking of snaps him out of his thoughts. "I'm fine!" He quickly responds.

"Okay…" Sakura says before backing out through the door. _'He's getting weirder and weirder every time I see him.'_

After Sakura left the room and Kurapika could hear her footsteps fading down the hall, he fell back on the bed and sighed.

* * *

"Time for bed!" Sakura shouts happily after getting out of the shower. She really wanted to jump on the bed.

"Whoa, hold a second!"

"What?" Sakura pouts when Kurapika stops her.

"Do you even have to ask? I'm not letting you in the bed until you dry your hair properly," Kurapika says in a mother like manner.

"Can't you see the air drying it? How much more 'proper' can you get?" Sakura tells him whilst twirling around the room to demonstrate her method.

"First of all, that doesn't make sense and secondly come here and dry your hair properly with a _towel._ " Kurapika orders her and offers her a clean towel.

"Don't wanna." Sakura sticks her tongue out and pulls one of her eye at him.

Kurapika just sighs at her behavior and walks over to Sakura to drape the towel over her head. When she didn't make a move to dry her hair with it, he let out another sigh and proceeds to go and dry her hair for her.

"Ugh, what are you my mother?" Sakura expresses her clear dislike of the action on her head.

"Well, I don't want to sleep with someone who wets the bed."

"..."

"You know what I meant!" Kurapika blushes as he realizes just how odd his previous sentence sounded out loud. "You shouldn't make this a habit, you'll catch a cold."

"Too late, this is actually the first time drying my hair with a towel." Sakura informs Kurapika with a cheeky smile.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to do this?"

"Uh… well, I've kind of been living alone most of my life so… nope."

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, it's not like I've been so sensitive about your situation."

There was an awkward silence as the both of them sensed that they have crossed a line they shouldn't have.

"Um… I think my hair is dry now."

"Oh, right!" Kurapika quickly removes the towel off her head. "Let's get to sleep!"

"But it's not even that late yet," Sakura whines.

"Yeah well, we have to get up early in the morning, so sleep."

"Wait, we do?"

"Yes, we still have quite a bit to go before we reach the mansion." Kurapika attempts to give a valid reason and proceeds to go under the covers.

"But I thought we were planning to attack in the middle of the night." Sakura points out, only to be ignored.

"Fine, you go off to dreamland by yourself, I still want to stay up a bit later." Sakura announces before turning off the light.

Seeing as Kurapika was sleeping on his side, Sakura decides to sit near the window so that his back was facing her. She stares at his sleeping form for a while before turning her head to the window. The moonlight shines gently on her face as she gazes out the window aimlessly. She moves the strands of hair that were blocking part of view and finds her hands wandering through her previously wet hair. She let out a sigh.

 _'_ _I wonder how long it's been since someone has cared enough to dry my hair for me.'_ Sakura thought with a sad smile. Although she knew it wasn't anyone's fault, she didn't deserve their concern nor did she want it, so she supposed that this whole matter was mute.

Unbeknownst to her, Kurapika had looked over his shoulder and witnessed her in her disheartened state. He could tell that she had intended to keep this moment to herself so he decided not to say anything.

* * *

When Kurapika awakens, the first sight he sees is Sakura's sleeping face. He blushes and goes to back away, but the thought of waking her up halts his movements and he tries his best to stay still.

 _'_ _She really is cute.'_ Kurapika couldn't help but think as he stares at her sleeping form.

However upon closer inspection, he notices the redness under her eyes. It was very light and from a distance he was sure no one would've noticed, but since he was so close to her face, the redness really stood out to him.

 _'_ _Has she been crying?'_

Kurapika's hand unconsciously reaches out to Sakura, but before he made contact her eyes snap open.

"What are you doing?"

Realizing that his hand was only inches away from Sakura's face, Kurapika immediately retracts them. Unfortunately for him, he retracted his hand so fast that he lost his balance and went tumbling back off the bed, making the whole situation even more embarrassing.

At first Sakura just sat there staring at his crumpled form on the ground, but then after a few seconds later she burst out laughing.

"Ahahaha! You're such a weird person!" Sakura says while hugging her stomach and wiping some of the tears escaping from her eyes.

Kurapika could only sit there, blinking with his face flushed with red.

"S-Shut up, you surprised me!" Kurapika yells in defense, but at least she seems happy now, maybe those red marks were from tears of joy… or maybe he was just overthinking all this. "A-Anyway hurry up and get ready," He tells her as he sees that she was still in her pajamas and she clearly had bedhead. He didn't know a lot about the behavior of girls but after being Neon's bodyguard he knew how annoying it was to wait for them to get ready.

Sakura let out a tired yawn and rubs the tears from the yawn off her eyes before pulling the covers off herself and getting out of bed. At first she just stands there and trying to stay awake until her pajamas shatters into a bunch of cherry blossom petals. Kurapika goes to cover his eyes but then he notices that she still had a white skater dress on and let out a sigh of relief. Though as soon as the cherry blossom petals shatter, they gather together and swirl back around her again. In a matter of seconds, the petals had incases her before bursting out and revealing a completely dressed Sakura, her hair was nice and neat as well.

"All done." Sakura announces and looks and Kurapika for confirmation. "What?"

"You make your own clothes?" Kurapika asks questionably.

"Don't worry these are totally legit." Sakura pulls on the hem of her shirt to prove her point. "Besides, this way I can use it as an armor as well, go ahead and punch me in the gut," She tells Kurapika with wide open arms.

"I'm good…" Kurapika sweat drops.

* * *

After walking for about three hours, they had reached their destination, the mansion harbouring the scarlet eyes.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asks, a little annoyed. They were here way too early, just like she told Kurapika.

"We wait."

"The sun hasn't even gone down yet," Sakura tells Kurapika while gesturing to the sun still in the sky.

"Well, that means we have plenty of time to scout the area," Kurapika tells her, trying to make this situation look like it's a good thing and divert the attention away the reason for them being way to early.

"That's stupid," Sakura comments but since Kurapika was technically the leader, she had to follow him when he 'scouts' the area.

They actually did end up doing a pretty good job in scouting the area but a lot of the precautions were totally unnecessary in Sakura's opinion.

 _'_ _When did he become such a caution freak?'_ Sakura thought a feeling akin to disappointment.

When midnight, the time they both agreed on to enter the mansion finally came, Sakura immediately splits from Kurapika and heads for one of the windows.

"Hey-" Kurapika starts to yell after Sakura but quickly stopped himself before he gives them away to the guards who they had seen arrive after them. So now he had no choice but to follow Sakura's lead and enter the building through the window she had picked open. However as soon as they were inside, he made sure to take the leadership role back. "Control complex much." He hears Sakura mutter under her breath but decides to ignore it and continue on with the mission.

Kurapika continues down the hallway, making sure to avoid any security cameras or guards posted along the way. Sakura follows closely behind, also making sure to avoid the cameras. He didn't look back to check if she did but no alarms were going off so it was safe to assume she did.

They weren't sure exactly where the scarlet eyes were stored so they had to check all the rooms they came across. Kurapika decides to check all the rooms on the right whilst Sakura checks the rooms on the left.

They clear the first floor with no sign of the eyes. The mansion had a total five floors including the attic and basement so Kurapika decided he would head up to the next floor whilst Sakura took the basement. He assigned it this way since Sakura was quicker than he was and would be able to catch up to him faster if she found nothing.

 _'_ _This is going to take longer than I thought.'_ Kurapika thought as he headed up the staircase to the second floor.

As soon as he steps foot on the second floor, an alarm went off. Caught off guard by the sudden alarm, Kurapika immediately looks back to see if something had happened to Sakura and discuss their next course of action, but unfortunately Sakura had already gone down to the basement. This action causes Kurapika to miss the guard who instantly appeared in front of him when the alarm went off. By the time he senses the presence in front of him, he had been kicked right in the stomach, which sends him tumbling back down the stairs. "Gah!" He wasn't given any time to regroup as he sees the guard lift up his hand, which triggers his ability to create what seemed like balls of fire behind him. With a flick of the wrist, the fireballs come hurling towards Kurapika who was still in the midst of tumbling down the stairs.

 _'_ _Che.'_ Kurapika clicks his tongue in annoyance. _'A nen user.'_

Acting quickly, Kurapika launches his chains, wraps them a nearby pillar and pulls on it to avoid the fireballs coming his way. Luckily he made it in time and the fireballs ends up scorching the floor at the bottom of the stairs. He lands next to the pillar and moves around it so that his back face up against the pillar, hiding him from the guard's sight.

"Do you really think you can hide from me?" The guard sneers as he lifts his hand up again.

Kurapika expected the fireballs to appear from behind the guard like last time, but he soon found out that he was completely wrong. Instead of appearing behind the guard, the fireballs appear right in front of him. He quickly dives to the ground to avoid the fireballs and did one complete tuck and roll to get him back on his feet, but now he was now out in plain view.

"Hmph. Impressive, but let's see you dodge these."

The guard lifts both his hands up and fireballs appear all around Kurapika before they were hurled in his direction. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge all of them completely so he decides to let some of them in but made sure that nothing vital would be hit.

"Agh!" Kurapika cries out in pain as the fireballs burn through his clothes sears his skin. Luckily he was able to get out without getting severely injured and he was still able to move around quite freely, if he ignored the pain. Plus during the last attack he was able to discover how the guard's nen ability really worked and what conditions need to be met. He found that the fireballs took about three seconds to fully form and only appears at the general direction in which the guard was pointing at.

 _'_ _I just have to reach him and restrict his arm movements.'_ Kurapika thought. _'But from this distance, the only way I could get to him quick enough would be to use my scarlet eyes and activate emperor time.'_ He really didn't want to use his scarlet eyes and risk its side effects but it seems like he had no other choice. The longer he let this fight drag on, the more he would be at a disadvantage.

After much deliberation, he determines that using his eyes was the best course of action. He waits for the guard to use his ability again and the second Kurapika sees flecks of flames around him, he activates his scarlet eyes causing his speed to increase immensely when he powers himself up with nen. The guard was caught off guard by the sudden increase of speed and he was able to seal the guards' hands behind him. However, that wasn't enough to stop the guard.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me." The guard states coolly, which only clearly registers in Kurapika's mind when he feels the heat above him.

Kurapika makes the action to move out from under the fireballs but the guard wasn't about to let him and grips his chains to keep him from dodging from dodging the assault. The fireballs rain down upon them and both were caught in the attack.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sakura had heard the alarm go off but decided to ignore it and continue down the stairs to the basement.

 _'_ _Geez, how much longer will it be until I reach the bottom?'_ Sakura thought. Her question is soon answered as she hits an invisible wall.

"Ite." Sakura voices out her pain as she rubs the spot on her forehead that had smacked into the invisible wall. "What was that?"

Sakura moves her arm out of her line of vision only to find out there was nothing in front of her. Well, she did see the stairs continuing down to who knows where, but she knew she definitely hit something solid.

 _'_ _This doesn't make sense.'_

Sakura slowly reaches out in front of her and finds that there was indeed something solid in front of her.

 _'_ _Maybe if I…'_

Sakura gathers her nen up to her eyes in hopes that she could see whatever it was in front of her using gyou.

 _'_ _Bingo.'_

Through gyou, the hidden door to the basement was revealed. Sakura turns the door handle and tries to push the door open, but it doesn't budge. She tries pulling, thinking it was one of those awkward moments when you try to open the door the wrong way, but it still wouldn't budge. She focuses her nen onto her arms and tries again, but once again, it didn't shift in the slightest.

 _'_ _Why… won't… you… op…'_ Sakura thought as she pushes and pulls with all her might, only to discover that there was a keypad next to the door _'en…'_

Sakura had a huge urge to face palm, but that wouldn't turn out well right now with her strengthened arms. Instead she lets out a sigh and contemplates on how to open the door, taking into account the newfound information. Although in the end, she decides to just open the door with force, since figuring out a password took too much effort in her opinion and she her time was limited in this situation. She goes through her list of firearms in her mind to see, which one was best suited for this situation. She imagines what would happen if she launched a bazooka here and concludes that it would attract way too much attention so instead she regrettably conjures up a sword out of her nen and cut the door apart. At first it looked like she just did one clean slice through the middle of the door, but later as the two halves shifts, all her other slices because visible as the two sides are then split into many pieces, which crashes to the ground almost simultaneously.

 **Crash!**

 _'_ _Maybe I shouldn't have done that…'_ Sakura thought and turns around nervously to see if anyone had come running from the loud crashing sounds.

She waits for a while for people to show up and attack her, but no one shows up and she couldn't feel anyone coming her way either, then a realization dawns on her.

 _'_ _They could come from inside the basement!'_ She thought and quickly spins around and puts up her guard, but no one was coming to get her from inside the basement either nor could she feel any presences.

 _'_ _There is a chance they're concealing their presences…'_ With that thought in mind, Sakura lifts her katana up and considers whether to change the sword into guns or just keep it as is.

Personally she preferred guns as the sword brings back a lot of unwanted feelings, but changing weapons now would be dangerous. Someone could be lurking in the basement, waiting for a chance to ambush her for all she knew. Guns don't work that well in close combat anyway.

 _'_ _Haah, I guess I'll keep the sword.'_ Sakura sighs and conjures up a belt and a matching sheath out of her nen. She made the belt hold the sheath on her back horizontally since she didn't like how swords tend to dangle on your side. She whips the sword out in front of her to get any stray residue of the door off before sliding it in the sheath behind her.

Sakura proceeds to make her way into the dark basement. She doesn't bother finding the light switch, as the light from the open doorway was enough for her to see. She was used to walking around in the night anyway, so the darkness didn't bother her much.

After exploring the room for a good while, Sakura discovers that the room wasn't very big at all. It was more like a massive vault than a basement under a mansion. Either that or these people were very cheap when it came to the rooms under the ground. So instead of walking around to search, she decides to go back to the light of the open door and do a quick scan of the room, to see if there were any abnormalities that could be related to the scarlet eyes.

After seeing how small the room was, Sakura deems that it was safe to assume no one was inside the room besides her. She would still have to watch the door incase someone from the outside finally realizes she was in here, but that wasn't really going to affect what she was about to do. She decides that it was safe enough to create a flashlight and shine it through the room, so she did exactly that. She conjures up her petals and combines them together to create a bright, working flashlight. She shines the flashlight throughout the room and finds that it was full of antics.

 _'_ _Maybe the scarlet eyes is actually here!'_ Sakura thought excitedly, after all scarlet eyes were kind of an antic, right? Well either way, she was really fired up, as there was a very good chance they were in here and she could find them, give them to Kurapika and never have to be near them ever again. At least not that pair in particular.

Sakura carefully scans the room from one side to the other, making sure not to miss any details. When she reaches near the middle of the room, it turns out that her efforts were not in vain. At the very back she was sure there was a faint reddish glow. Her eyes may just be playing tricks on her but she wasn't afraid to play along. She quickly made her way through the hoard of antics to the area where she swear is glowing red. She clears the area around the red glow and finds that it was coming from under this object covered in a black cloth.

 _'_ _Please be it. Please be it.'_ Sakura chants in her mind, as she goes to uncover the unknown object.

Once the cloth was off, much to her joy, a pair of red glowing eyes in some kind of container was revealed underneath.

 _'_ _Yes! I've never been more glad to see these in my life!'_

Sakura picks up the eyes with triumph in her own eyes and places it in the bag she had conjured up before they even entered the mansion. Who said she wasn't an organized type of person. She happily turns around and runs up the stairs, she couldn't wait to show these to Kurapika and shove it in his face. Well not literally, that would be weird. She continues to carry her happy mood to the first floor, until she sees Kurapika who was still smoking from the fire.

"Kurapika!" Sakura yells out, her mood plummets down immediately. She runs up to him and shoves the random person next to Kurapika away. She flips Kurapika onto his back and presses her ear on top of his chest. It took a while but she finally heard a heartbeat.

 _'_ _Thank God, he's alive!'_ A wave of relief rushes over her. However the relief that Kurapika was alive only lasted a second as she sees the terrible burn marks all over his body

 _'_ _Why wasn't I born an enhancer?!'_ Sakura thought with dismay, if she was, she would be able to heal him. She did know the process to heal but she knew that her nen wasn't strong enough in the field to make any real difference. No, actually there was one way that she could make her healing ability strong enough to heal Kurapika, but it was the one thing she never wanted to use as long as she lived.

Her scarlet eyes.

Sakura knew how to activate them and that it would give her an enormous amount of power in every field of nen, but she really didn't want to use them. This wasn't because of the side effects she knew the action would ensure; it was more of a personal issue. But what choice did she have, she couldn't just let Kurapika suffer and possibly die. That's right, she couldn't let emotions determine a choice of life and death of a friend.

With that resolution in mind, Sakura closes her eyes and when she opens them back up again they were glowing scarlet. She gathers her nen to her hands and lays them on top of Kurapika.

 _'_ _I hope this works.'_ Sakura prays as she injects Kurapika with a huge amount of her nen that she had converted to heal things. The reaction her nen had on Kurapika truly shocked her. She watches as her nen flows from the point in the body she had originally place it in and spread out all throughout the body, healing Kurapika at an amazing speed. She watches as the burn marks on his skin slowly fades away. "Whoa." Was the only thing that escapes her mouth. She would have liked to just stay there and watch the healing process to completion, but then she starts to detect people heading their way.

"We better get out of here." Sakura tells to Kurapika, but receives no response, as he was still unconscious.

Sakura lets out a sigh and throws Kurapika over her shoulder before making her daring escape and by that she means running out the front door. Hey, it was right in front of her, she wasn't bothered to run all the way back to the window they entered in and trying to get both Kurapika and her through a hole meant for one person. She wasn't that industrious when it came to being a thief. She powers herself up with her nen and she was out of there faster than you could say 'fudge'. She decides to stop just outside the nearest town to the mansion, which was quite far away, like maybe an hour distance if you walk.

"Sakura?" A voice calls out from the entrance of the city.

Sakura turns around to see Chase and Killua, who were staring at her with wide eyes.

 _'_ _What are they staring at… Crap.'_

Sakura only realizes now that she had forgotten to switch off her scarlet eyes.


	8. Chapter 7: Secret x is x Out

**Chapter 7: Secret x Is x Out**

"Haha… hey guys. What are you doing here?" Sakura asks nervously while she quickly blinks the red away.

"You know just collecting our item for the hunter exam, and seeing our friend with glowing _red_ eyes!" Chase yells out in response, making sure to put the emphasis of 'red'.

"Are you sure my eyes were red? It's pretty late and people who have been deprived of sleep have been known to have hallucinations-"

"Why don't you just admit you're a kurata?" Killua cuts in, tired of Sakura's lame attempt to push them away from the truth.

"Kurata? I thought that clan had been wiped out... ooohhhh." Chase starts only to recall the bit about the kurata having red eyes. "Wait, doesn't he have red eyes too." Chase points to the unconscious Kurapika, who Sakura had set on the ground. "So doesn't that mean you two know each other?"

"Uh… you could say that…" Sakura responds hesitantly.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Killua asks bluntly.

"Um… well… just so we're clear, he didn't say anything either!" Sakura shoves the blame on Kurapika, as she had no other explanation. Well she does have a reason, a very damn good reason in fact, but she didn't really want to reveal it right now, especially to Killua, who she just met.

"That still doesn't change the fact that you didn't say anything to him," Killua counters.

"Hey, if someone forgets about you, it's only natural that-" A sharp pain in her head cuts Sakura short "Ah!" She clutches her head at her temples.

"Sakura, what's wrong?!" Chase asks and he quickly races to her side.

"My head feels like it's being repeatedly stabbed." Sakura was able to reply before she was hit with a sharper pain, which had her falling to her knees. "Ahh!"

"Sakura! Crap she's starting to burn up!" Chase panics, he had never seen Sakura in a state like this before.

"Don't shout so much, people are trying to sleep."

"How can you say that right now?! Sakura looks like she's dying!" Chase yells at Killua for his insensitivity.

"Relax. It's probably just the side effect." Killua informs him calmly.

"Side effect? From what?" Chase questions Killua.

"From using her eyes, Kurapika went through the same thing. They experience terrible pains and become feverish if they use it for too long but based on Kurapika's experience last time, she'll just have to deal with it until the side effects subside on their own," Killua explains.

"So her life's not in danger?"

"No." Killua answers, although he's not a hundred percent sure, if it'll stop all the yelling than he supposed it was more than okay to tell Chase that. She didn't seem that weak enough to die from that anyway.

Chase let out a sigh of relief before he felt someone tugging at his shirt.

"P-Promise me y-you won't… tell Ku-Kurapika." Sakura pleads with Chase with her remaining strength.

"What? I have to-" Chase starts, only to receive rough tug on his shirt from Sakura, showing her disapproval.

Sakura continues to look up at Chase with desperate eyes; she really didn't want Kurapika to find out at this time, especially not from someone else.

"Alright, if it'll make you feel better, I won't tell him," Chase gives in.

Sakura turns to Killua, who in turn just gave her the 'does it look like I care' look. Relief floods through her and she lets the exhaustion take over her.

"What do we do now?" Killua asks.

"I'll check into an inn in this town and stay here with Sakura until she recovers. You go back to the hunter exam site with Kurapika and turn in our item." Chase replies.

"Okay. Do I turn in their item too?"

"Oh, they've already gotten their item as well?"

"Well, I'm guessing that's what's in that bag." Killua refers to the bag Sakura was carrying that was emitting a light glow.

Chase opens the bag and takes out the scarlet eyes hidden inside.

"Whoa, this is creepy," Chase comments as he takes in the scarlet eyes floating in the container. "But, how is this worth so much money?"

"Who knows, people have some weird kinks." Killua says before he takes the eyes out of Chase's hands. "I'll be going then," he announces and was gone in a flash.

"Okay then, time to find an inn." Chase mumbles to himself.

* * *

The next morning, Sakura opens her eyes to find a cloth covering them, keeping her from seeing anything but white. She moves to remove the cloth from her eyes but as soon she moves, pain racked her entire body, she could feel the beads of sweat run down the side of her face.

"Don't move," Chase tells her and pushes her hand back down.

"Where… am I?" Sakura asks between ragged breaths.

"An inn in the town we were at last night," Chase answers.

"Is… Kurapika… here?" Sakura questions Chase, her voice full of concern.

"Don't worry, since he wasn't injured, Killua took him back to the exam site along with your item," Chase reassures her.

Hearing Chase's response, Sakura lets out a silent sigh of relief, although her time of relief was cut short again as another burst of pain struck her whole body. She didn't cry out in pain, but Chase could see how much pain she was in from her twisted facial expressions and body movements.

"You shouldn't talk anymore," Chase advises her and pulls the blankets she had kicked off back over her.

Chase then proceeds to remove the cloth off Sakura's eyes, soak it in the bucket of warm water next to the bed, wring the water back out before placing it over her eyes again. During the process, he couldn't help but stare at Sakura's eyes, which had changed back to scarlet during the night. Sakura of course notices and decides to ask what she knew Chase wanted to know.

"Do you want… to know… why… I didn't… tell Kurapika?"

"Eh? Of course not, it's none of my business!" Chase quickly denies.

"It's fine… you already know… I'm a kurata… anyway."

"You need to rest," Chase tells Sakura after hearing how out of breath she was. In all honesty, he really did want to know, but now wasn't the time.

However, Sakura ignores Chase and starts to give her explanation anyway. She had already mustered up the courage to tell somebody and she wasn't going to let this chance pass her by. She just wanted to hurry up and get this off her chest already.

 _~ Flashback ~_

 _In a small town in Japan…_

 _"_ _Okaa-san!" The three-year-old Sakura shouts, as she runs to her mum._

 _"_ _Mikan!" Her mother responds and lifts her up in the air._

 _\- Flashback pause -_

"Wait, who's Mikan?" Chase asks, thrown off by the new name.

"Um… Me?" Sakura replies, not exactly sure what the problem was.

"Oh, you changed your name? That's dedication."

"Huh?"

"Your name's Sakura now, right?"

"Yeah… Sakura's my… last name…"

"Oh… how come this is the first I've heard of this?" Chase asks only to receive a weak shrug as a response.

 _\- Flashback restart -_

 _"_ _How was your day sweetie?" Her mother enquires._

 _"_ _Super! Otou-san bought me this cake!" Sakura replies and shows her mother the cake._

 _"_ _Honestly dear, I thought I told you to stop buying her sweets." Her mother looks over to her father._

 _"_ _Ehh, but how can you say no to this cute little face." Her father defends himself and squishes her face for emphasis._

 _Her mother let out a sigh and starts walking back inside the house. Her father follows her in while he tries to convince her that spoiling their daughter wasn't a bad thing. Sakura watches her parents argue amongst themselves about her and couldn't help a little giggle from escaping. She then goes to follow them in the house, but as she was walking, someone runs right into her and knocks the cake right out of her hands and onto the floor._

 _"_ _Oh I'm so sor-" The person that ran into her starts to apologies until he catches a glimpse of her face. "Monster!"_

 _The yell catches the attention of everyone including her parents, who quickly rushed back outside due to the noise. There they see the cake smashed on the ground and their daughter glaring at a man with her scarlet eyes._

 _"_ _Oh no." Her mother starts to panic, while her father quickly runs over to her and shields her from the upcoming onslaught._

 _"_ _She must be possessed!"_

 _"_ _Get her out of here!"_

 _The yells quickly escalate to things being thrown at her._

 _"_ _Otou-san I'm scared." Sakura says and buries herself deeper into her father's embrace._

 _"_ _It's okay sweetie, Otou-san will protect you."_

 _Her father quickly guides her back into the house with her mother._

 _"_ _Why! Why does she have those?!" Her mother yells hysterically._

 _"_ _Calm down dear, we knew this was a possibility from the start." Her father tries to calm her mother down._

 _"_ _What do we do now?"_

 _"_ _Well for now, let's go back to the village."_

 _"_ _Are you insane?!"_

 _"_ _Only until she learns how to control her eyes."_

 _"_ _They'll never accept us!"_

 _"_ _Come on, they're your family, of course they'll accept us… at the very least they'll accept you and Mikan."_

 _"_ _But what about you?"_

 _"_ _Don't worry about me."_

 _"_ _Dear!"_

 _"_ _What other choice do we have?!" Her father yells back, the riot outside finally getting to him._

 _In the end they decide going back to the village was their best course of action, so they packed up their things and headed out of the town. It was difficult making it through the angry mob at first, but when the mob saw the direction they were heading, they let them through, although they were still yelling angrily at them as they left._

 _By the time they reached the village, it was already nighttime so maneuvering through the forest was very troublesome. Eventually, the people from the village came out from hearing the noise._

 _"_ _Who's there?!" One of the villagers yells out, swords in his hands._

 _"_ _Don't worry it's just me!" Her mother answers back._

 _"…_ _Kaori?" One of the villagers recognizes her mother and happily walks closer, until he sees her father. "Who's that?" He questions her mother, but when his eyes land on Sakura, his question was answered and he did not like the answer. "Kaori don't tell me you…" He trails off and when her mother stays silent, he yells "Don't you know marrying an outsider is forbidden!"_

 _"_ _You don't understand!" Her mother tries to defend herself._

 _"_ _It's you who doesn't understand." A voice from behind the man responds._

 _"_ _Chief!" They all shout and opened a path to let him through._

 _"_ _You have let an outsider in and that brings danger to everyone in the village." The chief declares and doesn't even give her mother a chance to respond._

 _"_ _Ah!" Her mother cries out in pain and she is slashed with swords._

 _"_ _Gah!" Her father was immediately slashed as well._

 _"_ _Okaa-san! Otou-san!" Sakura yells as she sees her parents being cut down, tears streaming down her face from her glowing her eyes._

 _The villagers turn to Sakura and one of them goes to kill her, but before he does, the chief stops him._

 _"_ _Wait, don't kill her." The chief orders, when he sees her scarlet eyes._

 _Sakura watches the chief who bends down to her level and give her a seemingly kind smile, before everything went black._

 _When she wakes up, she discovers that it was morning and that she was in a bed of a room she had never seen before._

 _~ Flashback end ~_

"…" Chase stays silent, as he doesn't know what to say or if he should say anything right now.

After a while though, a realization hit him.

"Wait, doesn't that mean you would've been in the village during the massacre?"

"No… I already… left before that," Sakura explains.

"Oh… but wait, doesn't that mean Kurapika would know that there was a chance you're still alive. From what I saw, he was pretty sure that everyone from his village was dead."

"I left… after him."

"…I still don't get why you don't just tell him."

"It's nothing personal… I just don't… want to have… anything more… to do with the… kurata clan."

"…That's a little selfish of you isn't it?"

"I know, but it's… better this way. He'd just… be disappointed."

* * *

When morning came around, Killua had already completed his task of handing in the items and had dropped Kurapika off at an infirmary. Gon and Leorio were still out collecting their item, so Killua was basically stuck with Kurapika. Although he supposed it wouldn't be too boring, there were some things about the situation surrounding Kurapika that interested him.

"Mm…" Kurapika begins shifting in the bed.

"You finally awake?"

Killua's question brought Kurapika back to reality and he shot up immediately.

"…Where am I?" Kurapika asks when he sees that he is no longer in the mansion.

"The infirmary at the exam site," Killua answers casually.

"Where's Sakura?" Kurapika asks after he had looked around the room and found no sign of her.

"With her friend in another town." Killua gives Kurapika a vague response since he didn't know exactly where she was and he didn't care enough to think too deeply about her whereabouts.

"Oh, so she's fine?" Kurapika enquires and takes Killua silence and a 'yes.' He relaxes at this, but he was disappointed that he wasn't able to acquire the scarlet eyes. He couldn't believe that he let that nen user get the better of him. Well he supposed he could go back and get the scarlet eyes and a rematch, wait, was that guy still alive and more importantly how was he uninjured.

"Does Sakura remind you of anyone?" Killua suddenly speaks up, snapping Kurapika out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Not really," Kurapika replies without much thought

"You sure you've never met her before?" Killua pushes.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Kurapika replies again, confused as to where Killua was going with this.

"Think back. Doesn't she seem familiar… like a childhood friend perhaps?" Killua tries to jog Kurapika's memory by slipping in more information.

"Killua, you know I spent my entire childhood in the village," Kurapika responds a little annoyed that Killua brought up his past.

"Yeah so?"

"Killua!" Kurapika snaps, as he was getting angry that Killua wouldn't get the hint and drop the subject. ' _He knows that everyone from the village was… dead… what was the point of this conversation?'_

"Just think back." Killua tells Kurapika coolly.

At first Kurapika just continues to glare at Killua but seeing that Killua was not backing down, he sighs at thought back. He recalls everyone in the village, from his close friends right down to the people he only sees once in a while. He applies Sakura's appearance and personality to everyone he remembers and to his surprise he finds a close match.

"I think… I found someone," Kurapika announces.

"Really?" Killua fakes surprise.

"Yeah… I remember this girl who I would sometimes hang out with. She had pink hair, about the same shade as Sakura, she was bubbly, clumsy and I remember she loved sweets…" Kurapika trails off.

"Wow, sounds like they could be twins!" Killua says in an over exaggerating tone, although the truth was much bigger.

"That's impossible, Sakura's not a kurata… Mikan is." Kurapika states.

 _"_ _She must've changed her name. Guess she means business.'_ Killua concludes after hearing Kurapika's defense.

"Well maybe you should think this over one more time," Killua advises Kurapika and left it at that. He was curious but not that dedicated to the situation concerning Kurapika.

"Um ok…" Kurapika responds as he watches Killua leave the room.

 _'_ _What does he mean by that?'_ Kurapika couldn't help but ponder on Killua's last words. Why did he have to think about her again, it was already painful to think about her once. After all, she was his first love.

* * *

By the end of the week, the rest of the hunters had returned to the exam site from their mission. This confused Kurapika a little at first but then Killua explained that while he was preoccupied, the chairman sent out a notice regarding the phase rules. Seemed like he _forgot_ to tell them that there was a one week time limit for the phase. Thanks to his _mistake_ almost half of the participants failed as the notice was sent near the middle of the phase and the ones who went for items that required time were forced to change their items. Long story short, those people rushed and either got caught or simply ran out of time.

Kurapika didn't really care about passing so this revelation had no effect on him, he was more concerned about other things. Like what ever happened to his partner, Sakura. From what he heard from Killua, she was staying at an inn with a friend at the town closest to the mansion, but that was a more than a few days ago. He hadn't seen or heard from her since.

Kurapika was currently leaning against a wall in the corner of the room where they were supposed to meet up. He saw Hisoka in another corner and made sure to avoid any kind of contact with the psychopath who seems to be rather pleased with something at the moment.

 _'_ _Let's just pretend he's not there,'_ Kurapika tells himself.

Soon his friends Killua, Gon and Leorio join him. Looks like Gon and Leorio had succeeded in their mission taking into consideration the smug look on Leorio's face and the big grin on Gon's face.

Hanzo and Maya join them about an hour later. He couldn't tell if they passed or not since Maya had a huge smile on her face whilst Hanzo looked like he just had the life sucked out of him.

A few more hours pass by before Chase shows up and receives a kick to the face from Maya.

 _'_ _Aren't they supposed to be going out?'_ Kurapika sweat drops as he watches Maya continue to beat the crap out of Chase for some unknown reason.

Another hour passes after Chase's arrival but there was still no sign of Sakura. He had asked Chase about it but he said that she said she had something she needed to do so they ended up going their separate ways about a day ago.

 _'_ _I hope she's okay.'_ Kurapika thought and looks up at the clock. The cutoff for the phase was midnight and it was currently 11:47. She only had about 10 minutes to get here before she was disqualified.

"Why did you leave her alone?! You know she can't be trusted to be on her own!" Maya grabs Chase's color and yells at Chase as she had also noticed the time.

"She said it was personal." Chase responds unfazed as if he's been through this abuse a million times before.

Maya just clicks her tongue and harshly let go of Chase's collar.

"Wow, you're amazing," Leorio tells Chase, referring to the way he puts up with Maya.

"Well that's the power of lo-" Chase starts but was stopped midsentence when a scythe came at him from above. Luckily he was able to dodge the scythe before it split him in two, but Kurapika doubted Maya meant any actual harm. He was pretty sure…

Turning back to the clock, it was now 11:53 and Sakura still hasn't arrived.

 _'_ _Maybe she's not coming back…"_ Kurapika thought when he realizes that there was no reason for her to come back here. Killua had already turned in their items to be checked so she was free to go.

At the one minute mark, Netero and beans make their appearance and all the hunters that had gotten their item had arrived.

"I guess she's not coming." Killua remarks. _'Looks like I won't see how it'll go.'_ Killua thought disappointedly, although he can understand why she wouldn't want to come back to where Kurapika was when she didn't have to.

"I don't blame her. I can't wait to get away from you people," Maya adds.

"Maya," Chase says in a scolding tone to which Maya just rolls her eyes.

"I thought it was super fun to meet you guys," Gon says happily.

"Me too," Kurapika agrees with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure Sakura feels the same way too," Chase adds, making sure to look at Kurapika while he talks. He was really hoping that Kurapika would pick up the vibes he was sending his way.

 _'_ _Why is he looking at me like that?'_ Kurapika thought as he contemplates Chase's expression, it looked like he wanted to say something.

 **Gong!**

The clock sounds when the arrows both finally reach the twelve at the top.

"It's finally over!" Leorio shouts, unwittingly attracting all the attention of the other hunters around who had stopped to listen to the Chairman of the hunter association speak. "Oops."

"Ho ho ho don't count your eggs before they're hatched boy." Netero responds to Leorio's comment. "The exam isn't over yet."

"Huh?" Leorio utters in confusion.

Everyone else in the room was confused as well. The chairman clearly said that this was the final phase, what does he mean by 'the exam isn't over'?

"Yes I did say this was the final phase before but there's been a change of plans." The chairman reveals, adding curiosity to everyone's confusion. "Too many of you have passed so we need to lower the numbers a little. So the real final phase is to hunt down your partner from the previous two phases. The winners of the fourth phase must find the losers and bring them back here within three days. If you bring your partner back within the time frame, you pass. If you don't, your partner will pass. Oh, one more thing, killing is prohibited in this phase. Not just your partner, if you kill any other hunter you will be disqualified." Netero explains, making sure to look at Hisoka when he said the last part. Hisoka just gives him one of his smiles before Netero turns back to the rest.

"In what world is half a little?!" Maya yells in frustration. She already had to deal with the stupid bald ninja who won't stop talking and now she finds out that she didn't even pass. _'This is ridiculous.'_

"Relax." Chase tries to calm Maya down. "Besides this means that if you can avoid getting caught by him, you'll pass and he'll fail." Chase adds, as he knew what Maya was really upset about.

"That's the smartest thing you've said to me since we got here!" Maya compliments Chase, well it was more of an insult but Chase didn't seem to take it that way.

"Thanks," Chase responds with a genuine smile.

"I don't understand love," Killua comments after witnessing the interactions between Chase and Maya.

"Trust me you never will," Leorio assures him and places his hand sadly on Killua's shoulder.

"Well it makes sense you don't." Killua shrugs Leorio's hand off his shoulder.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Exactly what it means old man."

"Will you stop calling me that?!"

"I will when you stop being an old man."

"I'm not old!"

"Maa maa." Gon tries to create peace between the two.

 _'_ _Wow, they really haven't changed since the last exam. Guess I'm the only one…'_ Kurapika thought a little sadly. He remembers when he first met them and was able to have fun like they do. That was a good time in his life but he can't turn back the clock now. He has to live with the things that has happened in the past and the choices he's made, forever.

 _'_ _Ugh!'_ Kurapika shook his head vigorously. _'Why do I have to overthink everything?!'_ Kurapika thought with annoyance. If only he was able to live in the moment like his friends and forget his past, his life would be so much better. All his past has given him is a reason for revenge and the deaths of his entire family. He really doesn't understand why he's putting himself through this pain, okay well he does, it's to avenge his dead clan and let them rest in peace, but what was he going to do after. After he's defeated the spiders and collected all the remaining scarlet eyes, what's left for him then?

"…Pika… Kurapika!" Leorio woke him up from his reverie. "You've been zoning out a lot since we got here, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I was just wondering… what Sakura is going to do." Kurapika says the first thing he could think of.

"Oh that's right! That idiot isn't here!" Maya realizes.

"Does that mean she's disqualified?"

"What! That's not fair!" Hanzo yells, he doesn't really care whether she passes the exam or not but if she's disqualified that mean's that he won't be able to see his idol anymore.

"Don't worry she's not disqualified," Netero chimes in to everyone's surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"The ones being hunted gets an hour head start to hide themselves before the hunters go after them. Sakura and Kurapika just got an early start so you can actually go and try to find he right now.

"Ok, now that's not fair, why do they get a head start?" Leorio asks.

"Because in their case, it's more than just the exam," Netero says suggestively.

 _'_ _He knows…'_ Killua and Chase both thought.

 _'_ _Wait, does he know I'm in love with sakura?!'_ Kurapika thought with surprise.

"What do you mean 'more that the-" Leorio starts but is shoved aside by Killua midsentence.

"Shouldn't you get moving already?" Killua tells Kurapika.

"Don't encourage him-" Maya chimes in, trying to give Sakura a little more time, but she was also stopped midsentence by Chase who hugs her from behind, covering her mouth with his hands.

"What are you do-" Maya manages to get out after she was able to distance Chase's hands from her mouth using brute force. However Chase once again interrupts her before she could finish her sentence.

"Killua's right, you've already got the signal to start, you should go for it!"

"Um… okay?" Kurapika responds with a little confusion in his voice. He had three days and he didn't really even care about passing this exam, what was the rush?

Killua decides to handle Kurapika's lack of physical response by pushing him towards the door.

"Killua what are you doing-"

"Trust me the sooner you find her the better." Killua says before pushing him out the room and closing the doors behind him.

 _'_ _What was that all about?'_


	9. Chapter 8: Our x Childhood x Memories

**Chapter 8: Our x Childhood x Memories**

Kurapika decides not to think about his friend's odd behavior for very long and focuses his attention on his mission. He's already made it this far in the exam he might as well go all the way. He also has some unresolved issues with her concerning their last mission together and his feelings towards her.

 _'_ _Why do I have to feel this way?'_ Kurapika thought.

His life would be so much better if he couldn't feel anything, well not everything, just the annoying feelings like anger, jealously, sadness… love.

Kurapika shook his head vigorously when his thoughts landed on the dreaded word, 'love'.

 _'_ _Ugh, why am I so bothered with that? It's not certain what I feel for her is actually love, it just the emotion that fits in best with what I am experiencing...'_

Kurapika breathes out a sigh. Why did he maybe like her that way? Was it because he was attracted to people with happy go lucky personalities like hers and Gon's? Was it because he had become a cliché and is attracted to her because of her looks and profession like Hanzo? Was it because he knows that even though she isn't serious most of the time but when something important comes up she handles it with elegance like Killua? Or was it because he had actually found someone around his age that had an all rounded knowledge and not just one topic like Leorio?

"Pff." Kurapika couldn't help the little laugh that came up. Why did every good quality he thought up about her always come back to his friends?

 _'_ _Wait.'_

As his mind shifts to his friends, he remembers what Killua made him realize. Did he like Sakura because she reminded him about his childhood friend, Mikan?

 _'_ _That's it all I have to do is find her and realize that she's not Mikan!'_ Kurapika thought with excitement. If he can just confirm that Sakura and Mikan are two different people, maybe he can get rid of these annoying feelings for her.

Determined on confirming his new revelation and solving his problem once and for all, Kurapika eagerly begins his search. He decides to go back to the last place he knew Sakura had been, which was the town closest to the mansion. When he reaches the town, he starts off by going to all the inns and gave them a description of Sakura. At first they were all unwilling to tell him anything, saying that it was against their policy to divulge any information on their customers, but once he explains and shows them his hunter license, they spilt the beans immediately. He felt a little guilty for scaring them, but he was on a time limit and she could be a million miles away from here for all he knew.

The town was quite big so Kurapika had to go to a lot of different inns before he found the right one. It didn't help much that the inn Sakura stayed at was tucked away in the corner of the village, where not a lot of people went. Although the inn does seem to fit her personality. As he had spent more time with her, he noticed that she didn't seem to like to be in a crowd all that much despite her career. He had seen the way she would stray away from her friends and kept to herself while they chatted amongst themselves. At first he just figured that it was her way of giving her friends some alone time together as a couple, but the more he observed the more apparent the distance was and not just between her and Maya and Chase, it was everyone. At first glance it would seem she was interacting with the people around her in a carefree manner, but was she really? Sometimes it seemed like she was trying too hard and when she couldn't be bothered trying she would go silent and just smile and agree with the people around her. At times Kurapika feels that he was overthinking it, but then he would think about how his theory about her also applied to himself.

Kurapika breathes out a sigh after realizing how much time he had spent thinking about Sakura. He was supposed to be trying to figure out where she was physically not mentally.

 _'_ _Can't wait until I confirm everything so I can stop worrying so much,'_ Kurapika thought as he plans his next course of action.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sakura was currently travelling on an airship to her next destination. She was still recovering from the side effects from using her scarlet eyes so she figured it was best for her to preserve her nen as much as she could and if that meant taking an aircraft filled with people then so be it. Her scarlet eyes may go haywire again, but then again it's not like cared anymore if anyone finds out, since the people she didn't want to find out already has. She breathes out a sigh and leans back into her seat.

To say that the side effects took Sakura by surprise was an understatement. Seriously what was that reaction her body had towards her eyes? She knows that it was the first time she had ever tried combining them with her nen, but weren't the side effects a bit much? She wasn't even in that state for very long and from what she heard from Kurapika's friends, he was in that state for almost a full day and suffered for just as long as she did who only used it for about an hour.

 _'_ _The world is so unfair,'_ Sakura thought as she rests her head on the backrest of her seat. _'Not like I haven't already learnt that.'_ She sighs, as she was once again as she was reminded of her past.

Seriously, she thought that she would've been done with her past by now, but then Kurapika had to show up out of the blue. Granted the reports of stolen scarlet eyes should've sent alarm bells off in her head, she never thought the culprit would've been Kurapika. Honestly, the Kurapika she knew as a child was so much more different than the one now. Back then he was reckless and carefree, but now he was all serious and super cautious. It makes her sad to see how much he had changed during their time apart. Just goes to show you what the world was capable of. This applied to her as well, although she had already been damaged a long time before he was. She could still remember how Kurapika brought her out of her dark place and reshowed her the joys of the world, which also made her feel guilty for how she was acting towards him now. But she couldn't help it, she didn't want to hurt him by telling him the truth and she didn't want to be hurt by him in return.

 _~ Flashback ~_

 _The elders of the village had decided that it would be best to leave Sakura in her mother's old house and to fabricate a lie about her circumstances. The other villagers had been told that her mother had accidently gotten pregnant with her and for the sake of her reputation she fled the village. Her mother then tried to raise her child on her own on the outside, but it ended up being too much for her and she used up all of her remaining strength to return her daughter to her village before she died. The father of her child was never mentioned and the other villagers didn't dare ask, in 'respect' to her mother._

 _Since Sakura was only three years old, they thought they could convince her that their story was true and that she was a full kurata. At first she refused to believe them, who would believe someone they saw murder their parents right before their eyes. However as they kept repeating it over and over again to her, the more it started to sound true. Eventually her memory surrounding her parents' death starts to become unclear and she accepts the story as the truth. That was when she started living the lie._

 _For the first few years, all the villagers had pitched in to help take care of Sakura, but as she grew older and wiser in a sense, they all started leaving her. She didn't blame them. After all she was the only illegitimate child in the village. At the age of seven she had been left completely alone and essentially fend for herself. She didn't mind though. She was tired of the dirty looks they gave her when they came into her house._

 _During her spare time Sakura would make up little songs, which grew longer as her grew older. Her mother had a piano and she was able to teach herself from the books she found in the house. She wasn't able to play the full pieces she assumed her mother could play, but she was able to play almost all the chords. She knew all of them, but her hands were too small to play a few of them. However that didn't stop her from creating a tune for her songs. She found that most of her songs were slow and only needed chords anyway. Most of her songs were sad songs as she would use them to express her feelings instead of showing her feelings physically. She often wonders if the villagers ever hear her singing… if they ever hear her pain._

 _When Sakura wasn't singing, she would often read the other books that her mother had left in the house. She didn't particularly like reading, but she was too scared to go outside and potentially have to interact with the people outside, so she supposed she would have to use books to tide her over until she was old enough to leave the village. It was also convenient as she learnt that her mother was an avid reader during her time in the village, so she didn't have to go to the library. Her mother's collection of books was mostly filled with storybooks, but she enjoyed reading about the adventures the characters go through. She still remembers a little about the time she was on the 'outside', as the villagers called it and she couldn't help but wonder if she could've lived the adventures in the books if she had stayed there…_

 _Sakura breathes out a sigh and places the book down on the table before heading for the only windowsill that gave her a view of the village. She didn't really enjoy watching the villagers, but she finds herself unable to look away as they go about their day happily with their families. She often wonders what her life would be like if she was born into a normal family. She didn't hate her mother, but sometimes she wished that her mother had been like everyone else, so that she could be like everyone else. It was a selfish wish she knows, but at least she wouldn't feel the pain of loneliness she does now. She continues to stare blankly out the window, until a golden haired boy obstructs her view._

 _"_ _Hi!" The boy greets her._

 _At first Sakura thought the boy was talking to somebody else, but the boy continues to stare right at her. She stares back at the boy for a while until the boy takes a step closer to the window and touches the pane of glass separating them, which made her panic. Even though there was glass in between them, this was the closest she had been to someone for a long time and she didn't like it. She quickly pulls the curtains to cover up the window and sits on the ground with her back against the wall._

 _'_ _Maybe he'll go away if I stay like this.' Sakura thought hopefully, but the boy wouldn't have it._

 _After about a minute of silence, Sakura heard a knock at her door. When she doesn't respond, the knocks became louder and faster. She covers her ears with her hands, but she could still hear the knocks._

 _"_ _Go away!" Sakura yells out in fright. To her surprise, as soon as she said it, the knocking stops. A minute goes by, then five, then ten, and still no noise was heard._

 _'_ _Maybe he left…' Sakura thought as she crawls out from under the windowsill. She slowly starts to get up towards the window and carefully moves one of the curtains out of the way so that she could see out the window. She almost fell back when she sees the boy was still on the other side._

 _"_ _Hi!" The boy greets her as if he was there for the first time and she hadn't she rejected him._

 _"_ _I thought I told you to go away," Sakura says as she grips the curtain tightly._

 _"_ _Well, I don't want to," the boy responds_

 _"_ _Well, I do," Sakura retorts._

 _"…_ _Don't you feel lonely being in this house all by yourself?" The boy enquires._

 _"_ _Wha- that's none of your business," Sakura responds and grips the curtains tighter. Who does this guy think he is, talking as if he knows the pain she was been through. "Besides I prefer to be alone," she adds._

 _"_ _That's only because you haven't felt the joy of hanging out with people."_

 _"_ _Hmph, like anyone would hang out with me," Sakura mumbles under her breath, but the boy hears her._

 _"_ _But, that's why I am here," the boy announces his intentions blatantly._

 _'_ _Yeah right,' she thought and decides to set the boy straight. "Look I don't know if you're mocking me of taking pity on me or whatever, either way I'm not interested. You should just go and hang out with some other people."_

 _Sakura doesn't give the boy the chance to respond before fully closing the curtains and heading back to the table. 'I'm sure he'll leave soon,' she thought and picks up her book._

 _After Sakura had finished her book, she took the time to sweep the house before going back to the window. She wanted to let the light in and she figured the boy had already left by now so she reopens the curtains. 'Seriously…' was all that came to mind when she sees that the boy was still there._

 _"_ _You're back!" The boy says excitedly._

 _"_ _How long have you been standing there?" Sakura asks with incredulity._

 _"_ _How long has it been since you last talked to me?"_

 _Sakura let out a sigh. "Go home," she demands._

 _"_ _No," the boy responds._

 _"_ _Go home," Sakura repeats._

 _"_ _No."_

 _"_ _Seriously what do you want from me?!"_

 _"_ _I told you I want to hang out with you," The boy replies in all seriousness._

 _"…_ _Why?"_

 _"_ _So we can be friends," the boy simple states._

 _"_ _Friends? Why would you want to be friends with someone like me, you've heard about me right?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, so?"_

 _"_ _You know my mother had me out of wedlock and now she's dead and who knows where my father is so why?! …Why?" Sakura questions the boy while on the verge of crying._

 _"_ _What does it matter what your parents did? They're not you and besides if you think about it, if your birth turned out a different way, you wouldn't be who you are today and that would be bad."_

 _"_ _Hmph, what could you possibly know about me," Sakura laughs at the ridiculousness of the boy's reasoning._

 _"_ _I know that you like to read," the boy answers, which catches her off guard. "I know that you're very diligent because you clean your house everyday all by yourself. I know you're kind because you like to take care of small animals that have been injured. And I know that you're strong because you continue to go to the market even though everybody is so mean to you."_

 _"…_ _How do you know all that?" Sakura asks hesitantly._

 _"_ _You leave you curtains open everyday. You're practically letting the world know what you're doing everyday," the boy explains, which leaves her to give him a strange look. "Not that I watch you everyday! It's just…"_

 _"_ _It's just what?" Sakura asks with genuine curiosity and a little amusement._

 _"_ _It's just ever since I saw you, I wanted to get to know you more, but I couldn't build up the nerve to talk to you," the boy informs her with a light blush across his face._

 _"_ _You're talking to me now aren't you?" Sakura points out to the boy._

 _"_ _Well yeah, it seriously took me by surprise when you were staring at me. Normally you would look at my general direction but you would never really look at me so I got a little excited and came a bit closer… sorry if I scared you," the boy apologizes._

 _"_ _Pff, I…I wasn't scared…" Sakura says unconvincingly, her face red from embarrassment._

 _"_ _It's okay to be scared, I get scared sometimes too." The boy says and gives Sakura a reassuring smile._

 _Somehow, hearing the boy admit that he has been afraid made Sakura feel a lot better and at ease._

 _"_ _Sooooo, my name is Kurapika. What's yours?" Kurapika introduces himself when he sees that Sakura was starting to lighten up._

 _"…_ _It's Mikan." Sakura introduces herself shyly. She doesn't give her last name as she had noticed that the people here did not have last names._

 _"_ _Pff that's a weird name," Kurapika laughs._

 _"_ _Not as weird as yours," Sakura fires back._

 _Both glare at each other but soon they burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of their little fight._

 _"_ _Well, aren't you going to come outside?" Kurapika enquires._

 _Sakura walks away from the window in response and Kurapika thinks she is heading to the front door. He goes over to her front door to wait until she opens the door, but she wasn't thinking of using the door._

 _Sakura was actually going blow out the candle on her desk and close her book. Then she goes back to unlock the window then slides it wide open before she jumps out, much to Kurapika's surprise._

 _"_ _What? It's faster this way," Sakura tells Kurapika with a smile._

 _Kurapika feels his heart skip a beat, it was the first time he had ever seen her smile. All the times he had watched her from the window, she never had a smile on and it makes him truly happy to see that she could smile like that. It also made her a lot more beautiful in his opinion._

 _"_ _What's wrong?" Sakura asks as she notices Kurapika had been staring at her for a very long time without moving._

 _"_ _N-Nothing!" Kurapika quickly responds. "Let's go!" He grabs Sakura's hand and pulls her along, blushing furiously._

 _This action surprises Sakura, but she can't say that she didn't feel happy. 'He's warm,' she thought and smiles._

 _Kurapika introduces Sakura to his friend Pairo. Unlike Kurapika, Pairo was a little more cautious of her, but he soon comes to accept her, stating, "Any friend of Kurapika is a friend of mine."_

 _Time had never gone so fast for Sakura. Before she knew it, she had two of the nicest friends who had taught her a lot of things. The first thing they ever taught her was how to use her swords, which made her extremely happy, although she admits she might've taken it a little too far. Kurapika and Pairo had both started learning from a young age and she had felt that she needed to catch up so she would train anytime she was free. It wasn't long before she was able to fight them evenly and sometimes even win, much to their surprise and a little annoyance._

 _Out of the two of them, Sakura bonded more with Kurapika. He had discovered her habit of reading books and recommended all the books he liked for her to read. Honestly, she didn't want to read more books as that was basically what she had been doing for the past few years, but Kurapika seemed really excited to find someone who he could share his love of books and she couldn't turn him down. Plus she found that she didn't like it when he knew something she didn't so she may have gotten into it more than necessary. Although on the outside she plays it off as just a something she would do when she was bored, the truth was she read almost five books everyday. Kurapika also ups his game when he notices Sakura was starting to know more than him and he didn't like that, especially when he just sees her playing and eating sweets all day. Another thing Kurapika had noticed Sakura enjoyed doing a lot was singing. That was honestly what drew him to her in the first place._

* * *

 _The things Kurapika had heard about Sakura from his parents and the people around him were not good. Even as a child, he could sense the hate all the adults around him felt towards her, but he never knew why. He gets that her mother wasn't married to her dad when she was born, but why does that have anything to do with her. Even if that was a fact of concern, she was one of them wasn't she?_

 _The first time Kurapika saw the girl was when her parents had been assigned to take care of her. His first impression of her was like all his impressions of people. He couldn't see what was so bad about her. She seemed just like all the other kids in the village. However it was obvious through their actions that his parents thought differently and he could see she notices it too. After that encounter, he never met her face-to-face again for a while and by that he means years._

 _However one day, Kurapika decides that enough was enough. By this time, he had noticed that the villagers had stopped visiting the girl all together as she was now, they supposed, self-sufficient. They weren't wrong to deem that she was capable of taking care of herself but she was still only a child. There are other important things other than being able to stay alive like having someone to talk to. Don't they even consider whether or not she would be lonely in that house all alone? Well he did, which is why he was going to visit her._

 _Determined, Kurapika heads to the girl's house and walks up to her front door. He was about to knock but then he hears a piano playing from inside. He decides to switch from the door and move to the open window. There he was able to see that it was the girl that was playing the piano. He wonders where she had learnt how to play, but then he sees the piano books scattered all around her._

 _'_ _Oh, she taught herself. That's pretty impressive.' Kurapika thought, though it did sadden him a little that she would have to teach herself._

 _The piece she was playing wasn't overly complicated, just a few notes accompanied by some chords if Kurapika wasn't mistaken. He doesn't play the piano, but he has read books about them. Even though it was simple, it was really nice in his opinion. He looks up at the player and she looked very relaxed while she plays, then he sees her mouth start to open and her sweet voice starts to sing._

 _"_ _A summer breeze comes knocking again~_

 _I open up just to let in the sun~_

 _And all I hear are those fleeting tweeting notes they carry away~"_

 _Kurapika listens, as the words seem to flow smoothly out of her._

 _"_ _A half read book I place to the side~_

 _'_ _Hey little guy, where on earth are you from' with a smile~_

 _And with me blindfolded I still know that it's 3 after noon~"_

 _At first Kurapika was fully enjoying the song. It sounded so happy and fun, but then as the song continues, he realizes how wrong his first impression was._

 _"_ _I know how simple this world it seems~_

 _And yes I know, that it's me who is weird~_

 _But even I have to wonder why I cant just be like the rest~_

 _And far away and out of their sight~,_

 _there is a house in the forest of trees hid away~_

 _And can you bet there no one crazy enough to stop by~"_

 _The worst part was that Kurapika soon becomes aware of the fact that the song was about her life._

 _"_ _Don't look in their eyes!~_

 _A heart so cold became ice, I guess that I wasn't able to make a friend~_

 _And all I see everyday can never be much more than a thing~_

 _The world outside there is made from pictures in books~_

 _So please could you forgive me thinking such terrible things~_

 _Will someone please let me see with my own eyes?~"_

 _Kurapika couldn't help but feel guilty about the pain she was conveying through this song, though much to his relief the song does take a small turn for the good._

 _"_ _Long long long since before I was born~_

 _It's always been an inside out world but there was burning~_

 _Life inside me~_

 _I knew it'd never it'd never go out~_

 _Hey hey, when will that knock ever come?~_

 _I just cant wait to see what kind of future is out there~_

 _I'll wait to hear the sound~_

 _Knocking a beautiful call at my door…"_

 _'_ _At least she has hope.' Kurapika thought as he listens to the part about having life inside her and waiting for the day someone would come visit her._

 _However Kurapika's slight relief was only short lived as the girl stops playing and singing all together, she had run out of words._

 _'_ _Eh? That can't be it!' Kurapika thought, but then he sees the girl stand up and head to the window. 'I have to hide!' Was Kurapika's immediate response and he ducks under the windowsill. He could hear the sounds of curtains being shut, signifying that she was done for the day. He goes out from under the window and stares at the now covered window. 'I guess I'll visit her next time.' Kurapika thought in a defeated state and heads home. 'I hope I get to hear the rest of the song next time…'_

 _The next time Kurapika visits, he sees her reading a book instead of playing the piano. She looked so calm and serene as she flipped through the pages and he couldn't bring himself to interrupt her so he continues to watch her for a while before leaving._

 _The times after that didn't go as well as Kurapika had hoped either. Whenever he comes over she would always be doing something and he just couldn't bring himself to interrupt her and just ends up watching her through the window for a while. He's seen her reading a book, cleaning, writing what he assumed were her original songs, tending to small injured animals… and playing piano while singing. Although he never heard the sing the song the first time he came here much to his disappointment._

 _This cycle of Kurapika coming to her house to visit her, giving up and watching her through the window instead became a part of his normal routing and he was okay with that. However it did shock him when one day she catches him in the act. He remembers think 'Crap, did she find out about what I've been doing?!' He then tries to confirm whether or not she does through her reaction to his greeting. When she didn't react, he took a step closer, which turned out to be a bad move and she shuts the curtains almost immediately. He wasn't about to give up on though, he had gotten this far and there was no going back. To his surprise he somehow convinces her to come out of her home and become his friend._

* * *

 _"_ _Hah?! You seriously did all that?!" Sakura yells in shock of Kurapika's stalker behavior._

 _"_ _Well what else was I supposed to do?" Kurapika defends himself._

 _"_ _Um, I don't know…knock?!"_

 _"_ _Would you have answered if I had knocked?"_

 _"…"_ _Sakura couldn't admit that Kurapika was right so she doesn't say anything in response, but something from Kurapika's story did catch her attention. "That song wasn't finished, but I have finished it now if you want to hear…" She shyly offers._

 _"_ _Wait really?!" Kurapika shouts excitedly. "Yes, I want to hear it! Let's go back to your house right now so you can play it!"_

 _"_ _Eh? I can just sing it right here."_

 _"_ _No, you have to play it all properly."_

 _Sakura really didn't know what the difference was but Kurapika seemed so into it that she couldn't bring herself to say no and lets him drag her to her house._

 _"_ _Can I sing now?" Sakura asks when she was seated in front of the piano._

 _Kurapika nods vigorously in approval, which brings a smile to Sakura's face. She sighs and starts to play the song._

 _"_ _A summer breeze comes knocking again~_

 _I open up just to let in the sun~_

 _And all I hear are those fleeting tweeting notes they carry away~_

 _A half read book I place to the side~_

 _'_ _Hey little guy, where on earth are you from' with a smile~_

 _And with me blindfolded I still know that it's 3 after noon~_

 _I know how simple this world it seems~_

 _And yes I know, that it's me who is weird~_

 _But even I have to wonder why I cant just be like the rest~_

 _And far away and out of their sight~,_

 _there is a house in the forest of trees hid away~_

 _And can you bet there no one crazy enough to stop by~_

 _Don't look in their eyes!~_

 _A heart so cold became ice, I guess that I wasn't able to make a friend~_

 _And all I see everyday can never be much more than a thing~_

 _The world outside there is made from pictures in books~_

 _So please could you forgive me thinking such terrible things~_

 _Will someone please let me see with my own eyes?~_

 _Long long long since before I was born~_

 _It's always been an inside out world but there was burning~_

 _Life inside me~_

 _I knew it'd never it'd never go out~_

 _Hey hey, when will that knock ever come?~_

 _I just cant wait to see what kind of future is out there~_

 _I'll wait to hear the sound~_

 _Knocking a beautiful call at my door~"_

 _Kurapika was literally on the edge of his seat when he hears the last line and sees that this time Sakura wasn't done yet._

 _"_ _Knock Knock Knock and the sound is loud~_

 _Although I'd never heard a knock upon my door so~_

 _I was so scared~_

 _Oh god I need to think straight~"_

 _"_ _Hey hey, hearing a knock at my door~_

 _I never thought that I would ever hear such beating~_

 _And just so easily~_

 _It opened to leave me exposed and alone~_

 _And then finding me cowering hiding eyes away~_

 _That person was of course to be surprised~_

 _'_ _Don't look in my eyes…petrified…you'll turn to stone'~_

 _I tried to speak but he just smiled back~._

 _"_ _I was just like you, I was scared of living life~_

 _so scared that I would turn completely stone~_

 _But living in a world where no one is ever scared~,_

 _now wouldn't that be nice?~"_

 _'_ _Could this be about our first encounter?!' Kurapika thought happily._

 _"_ _Now now now, from a spark inside~_

 _I had imagined a new world for me to live in~_

 _Where they love me I feel it ringing out now~_

 _Hey hey, what does this world look like~_

 _I wanna know please tell me just how then can I get there~_

 _So if I'm ever lost~_

 _Hey will you search for me once again?~"_

 _"_ _Of course I will!" Kurapika jumps up and hugs her._

 _"_ _Hah?! What are you talking about, it's just a song!" Sakura yells at Kurapika for the sudden attack, but really inside she couldn't be happier._

~ Flashback end ~


	10. Chapter 9: Confessions x and x Apologies

**Chapter 9: Confessions x and x Apologies**

The information the innkeeper had given Kurapika hadn't been as helpful as he would've hoped. All he got was that she had wanted to get on an airship to an undisclosed location and that she asked them where the nearest airport was. So now he was at the airport they had told her to go to with completely no idea which one she took. He had tried asking the staff, but even when he showed them their hunter license, they wouldn't tell him as they have had plenty of hunters using their transport services and so there was an agreement of silence in accordance to any hunter's destination.

Kurapika slumps down into one of the chairs in the airport after being rejected from the receptionists. _'Now what am I going to do? Should I just take a guess and pray it's the right one?'_ Kurapika thought, but immediately throws that idea away as it wasn't only a huge stupid gamble, but it would be useless if he didn't know exactly where she was going. From what he had found out, it had been about a day since she left the inn, which is more than enough time to come to this airport, get on an airship, get off and he doubts that where the airship stopped was her exact destination.

"Hey there," a voice from behind him calls out.

 _'_ _Oh no.'_ Kurapika thought as he recognized that voice immediately. "Hisoka, what are you doing here?"

"Well since I killed my partner, I was automatically disqualified so now I have some free time on my hands," Hisoka explains a little too happily in Kurapika's opinion.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"What if I told you I know where you partner is?"

"You know where Sakura is?!" Kurapika immediately stands up and questions Hisoka.

"Well, I have quite a big hunch," Hisoka replies and hands Kurapika a slip of paper.

Kurapika takes the paper and it turns out to be an airship ticket.

"What's the catch?" Kurapika asks. He was a little dubious of the fact that Hisoka would help him without wanting anything in return.

"No catch, I just want to see how it turns out," Hisoka says with a seemingly innocent tone.

Kurapika was definitely wary of Hisoka's response, but he was getting a free ticket to where Sakura was so who was he to complain. "Can you give me a more specific location," he enquires, as the ticket would only take him to a general area.

"Sorry, but it's your hunt," Hisoka responds with a smile.

Kurapika really wanted Hisoka to tell him Sakura's location, but his pride wouldn't let him. Hisoka was right this was his hunt and no one else's.

"Have a safe trip," Hisoka tells him when his flight was called.

Kurapika ignores him and boards the ship.

 _'_ _I wonder if this ship will actually take me to where Sakura is.'_ Kurapika thought with dread as he realizes that he had just trusted Hisoka with no evidence that he actually knew where Sakura was. Kurapika breathes out a sigh. _'Well it's too late now.'_ The ship he was riding on takes almost half a day to reach his destination. He wouldn't have time to board another airship if he wanted to make the three-day mark.

* * *

Meanwhile Sakura had already got off the airship and was heading towards her destination. To be honest, she didn't really want to go there, but she has decided that it was time to get some closure.

 _'_ _I wonder if Kurapika has been here since then,'_ Sakura thought. He probably has, after all it was his home…

It wasn't long before Sakura reaches the Lusko province.

 _'_ _I hope I still know the way…'_ Sakura thought as she proceeds to go into the forest.

Sakura's only attempt to find the village was when she was three with her parents so she wasn't very confident. Especially since the first time didn't end so well and she had been trying her best to block out the memory. Well, it's not like her way out of the village to the outside world went as smooth either… She shudders as she remembers how she was able to leave, she wouldn't have even dreamed that she was going to go back willingly, though that was the thought back when they were still alive. When she had found out that they had been massacred, she honestly didn't know how to feel. They didn't treat her all that great, they were still technically her family, but she can say that a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

She was finally free.

After walking for a while, trying her best to follow the path she had taken the last time, Sakura comes upon what seemed to be a tombstone. From what she could make out, a cross had been etched into the rock and underneath was a few words, which she decides to read out loud.

"Here lies a mother, a father and…a daughter " Sakura pauses and re-reads the next part over and over again in her mind, making sure she read it correctly.

"Those jackasses killed me off!" Sakura shouts in disbelief, but well she can't really say she didn't expect something like that. However she was genuinely surprised at the fact that they were kind enough to give her family a gravestone. Although it was probably just to ease their guilt. Sakura breathes out a sigh and keeps on moving.

From there on out she would be walking blindly into the forest, but she wasn't going to let this lower her determination.

 _'_ _I can do this. I can get there and then I can finally leave this behind me for good.'_

It turned out that the gravestone was actually very close to the village. Sakura should be happy right now, but she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face. Her mother was so close, so close to returning to her home only to be killed in front of the entrance.

 _'_ _I can't believe I was naïve enough to think they were decent human beings!'_ Sakura thought angrily, but no matter how much regret she felt, the past can't be altered and the scars will never disappear.

* * *

Whilst Sakura was on her way into the village, the airship lands and Kurapika quickly takes in his surroundings. It wasn't long until he realizes where he was.

 _'_ _Don't tell me...'_ Kurapika thought as his mind immediately thinks of one place, his village. He didn't know what else would attract Sakura's attention, but she couldn't possibly know where the village. But then again, his village's location wasn't so secret now like the past and she was very knowledgeable. _'Does she feel guilty…'_ He thought with a little guilt. From what he had gathered from the past couple of weeks about Sakura is that she was very sensitive to the idea of death and her had practically thrown her into a rather uncomfortable situation when he brought her along to find the scarlet eyes for the previous phase. What's more is the fact that he got careless and lost his fight and he knew she must've had to get the eyes herself and carry it with her. The pair of floating red eyes must've affected her pretty bad considering her reaction to his scarlet eyes that were still inside his head.

 _'_ _I guess I can't really do anything about it now.'_ Kurapika resigns and heads to the village. There is a part of him that wants his theory to be wrong but there was just something in him that told him that Sakura was definitely there.

It didn't take Kurapika long at all to reach his village. Even after all the time that he had been away, he still knew that forest like the back of his hand. Upon entering the village, there was no sign of Sakura at all. He starts to go deeper into the village to look for her and as he does, the memories just come flooding back to him. He could still remember how his village used to look like and the people who lived in each of the houses. He remembers his house and Pairo's house, but some reason his legs bring him to a different house.

 _'_ _This is…'_ Kurapika thought as he recalls the house in front of him. This house was a little different from the rest. It was a little further away from the other houses and he vividly remembers to person who lived in that house, which was why it was sad to see it in shambles although it wasn't as bad as the rest of the village, which was a little odd. He can see that it had been hit and there were definitely a number of bloodstains on the house, but he was surprised to see how still intact it was compared to the other houses.

Unbeknownst to Kurapika, Sakura was in the very house he was currently staring at.

 _'_ _Crap, how did he know I was here?!'_ Sakura panics as she sees that Kurapika was right outside the door and she definitely did not want him to find her here. _'I know! I'll just sneak out the back window and run as far away as I possibly can.'_ Sakura thought and would've succeeded in her escape if not for the coffee table in front of her. In her flustered state she completely misses it and bumps right into it and everything on the table falls off.

 **Crash!**

Kurapika hears the loud noise from inside the house and immediately runs up to the door and opens the door to find Sakura crouching down on the floor clutching her sore leg.

"Sakura?!" Kurapika yells out with a little surprise, although he sort of had a feeling she would be there, it was still surreal actually seeing her there in front of him.

"Hey Kurapika, what are you doing here?" Sakura responds in a normal tone, even though inside she was freaking out inside.

"What am I doing here, what are you-" Kurapika starts only to remember that he already knew the answer. "Look I know you feel bad about the scarlet eyes thing but that doesn't mean you have to visit this village to apologize." Kurapika tells Sakura, who just looks back in utter confusion.

"What?"

"I mean I know you feel like you've disrespected the Kurata clan by taking the scarlet eyes, but I did ask you and I'm a kurata so it's okay," Kurapika attempts to clarify.

Sakura gets what Kurapika was trying to say and is relieved to her that he was way off target to the reason for why she was here, but a little part of her still feels like it had just been shot knowing that Kurapika still doesn't remember her.

"Although I would appreciate it if you didn't enter other people's homes without permission."

 _'_ _Eh?'_ Kurapika words catch Sakura off guard.

"Just because they're gone doesn't mean it's suddenly okay for anyone to enter," Kurapika continues, which irritates Sakura.

 _'_ _What the hell!'_ Sakura thought angrily, but she decides that it's best not to say something. That was until she heard the next thing Kurapika says.

"It belonged to a very special friend of mine," Kurapika states, not knowing what this once sentence did to Sakura.

"You're unbelievable." Sakura says with her head down and bangs covering her eyes. She didn't know why, but all the emotions she had been keeping deep inside her were just starting to spill out.

"…What do you mean?" Kurapika says, completely lost.

"Do you really know who this house belongs to?" Sakura questions him.

"I told you, it belonged to a friend of mine," Kurapika answers confused.

"Describe them to me," Sakura demands.

"Hah?"

"I said describe them."

"Why do I have to do that? It doesn't concern you." Kurapika responds a little angrily and receives only silence from Sakura.

Kurapika remains silent as well and the awkward silence continues for a while until Sakura speaks again.

"…Get out," Sakura tells Kurapika in a quiet voice.

"What?" Kurapika asks, as he couldn't quite catch what Sakura had said.

"I said get out!" Sakura bursts out in anger, which made Kurapika angry.

"What makes you think you can-"

"Because this is my house!" Sakura shouts, she didn't care if he found out anymore. Honestly enough was enough, why did she have to shoulder this burden. It was clear that Kurapika didn't even care about her. He was just like the others that had caused her so much pain.

Kurapika was about to yell back at Sakura until he sees her eyes, which had changed colour during her outburst and that's when it finally dawns on him.

"…Mikan?" Kurapika calls out hesitantly and when he receives no response he reaches out to her only to receive a harsh rejection.

"Don't touch me!" Sakura smacks Kurapika's hand away.

"Look I'm sorry but you should've told me," Kurapika apologizes, but he was a little annoyed that for the fact the Sakura knew who he was and didn't tell him who she really was.

"I should've told you?" Sakura says in disbelief. "You're saying I should've told you?!"

Kurapika was about to say something back, but Sakura wasn't done.

"Did you know that even before you told me your name, I knew exactly who you were just by looking at you, but you didn't? Did you know how much it hurt during this time when there were so many opportunities for you to figure out who I was and yet you completely cast them aside? Did you know how much of me was crushed when you told me that I needed your permission to enter my own house?! I thought we were friends! I thought you actually cared about me! But I guess you're just like those other scumbags."

"Okay I think that's going to far!"

"Too far? Too far?! Do you know what's really to far?! Murdering one of your own and her husband just because he was an outsider! Taking in and lying to their daughter only to kill her too when she eventually found out the truth!"

"Mik-"

"Don't you even dare say my name! I don't want to hear you say the only thing my parents could give me!" Sakura shuts Kurapika down and that's when she really began to break and spill out everything that she had been bottling up inside. "It's so frustrating! I thought that if I put the past behind me and just pretended that it never existed who make me happy and honestly it did. I met Maya and Chase and became a hunter and I travelled the world and ate all the sweets I wanted and just when I thought I was finally done, you appeared and… I was overcome with so much joy. Even when you didn't recognize me, I thought that it was for the best because I didn't want to deal with that part of me ever again. I didn't want to go through that pain again yet it felt like a small part of me dies every time I saw that you only saw me as just another participant and I don't know why! Why do I feel this way… why can't I forget you…" Her eyes start to change back as her anger was overtaken by the immense sadness she had tried her best to conceal.

To say that this overload of information shocked Kurapika was an utter understatement and the only thing he could do was go up and hug Sakura.

"I'm sorry. I know that it won't make up for it but I just want you to know that I'm really sorry," Kurapika apologizes with complete sincerity. This surprises Sakura but she just hugs him back and cries her heart out.

* * *

The next day both Kurapika and Sakura arrive back at the exam site. The airship ride back was a silent one. Kurapika was still digesting all the things Sakura had said and Sakura slept through most of the flight. It had been a while since she expressed her genuine emotions and it really tired her out. Neither of them had said anything to the other since the whole confession in the village and both honestly had no idea how long this silence was going to last, but it looks like they didn't need to solve it themselves.

"Kurapika! Sakura!" Gon calls out to them as they enter the building and it wasn't just him there. Killua, Leorio, Hanzo, Maya and Chase were all there as well.

"Sakura! Where the hell have you been?!" Maya shouts at Sakura with more concern than anger.

"Um… just you know… places," Sakura says sheepishly.

"Sak-"

"So how did it go?" Chase interrupts Maya and asks Sakura.

"Did you tell him you were a Kurata?" Killua joins in.

"Wait, what?!" Leorio yells out before Sakura could answer.

"What is he talking about?" Maya questions Sakura.

"Um… can we not talk about this now?" Sakura responds as the questioning stares were overwhelming her.

Everyone didn't want to back off but they could tell she really didn't want to tell them so they stopped. Besides seeing as how Kurapika wasn't shocked at the mention of her being a kurata, she must've told him.

"That was a little mean of you changing your name though," Killua says.

"Huh? Who told you I changed my name?" Sakura tilts her head in confusion.

"Well your name now is Sakura and before it was… Mikan or something right?"

"Um, well they're both my names. Mikan's my first name and Sakura is my second," Sakura states.

"This is the first time I heard about this!" Maya announces a little annoyed to hear that she didn't even know her best friend's first name.

"Eh, I thought you knew?"

"Well I didn't."

Sakura thinks back to when she and Maya first met and realizes why Maya didn't know her first name. "Oh, I remember now. The first time we met, you guessed my name was Sakura from my hair colour."

"Why didn't you correct me?!"

"But you were technically right and you seemed to happy so I couldn't bring myself to tell you that it was only half of my name and I guess as time went on I just forgot about it haha…" Sakura laughs it off and receives a glare from Maya.

"Oh… so it was your fault," Killua concludes.

"What do you mean it's my fault?!" Maya snaps back.

As Sakura watches them bicker, she couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity of the fight. After all the drama she went through with Kurapika she really needed something like this to lift her spirits.

Sakura looks over to Kurapika and sees that he was looking back at her with a gentle smile. She quickly whips her head back around, a light blush coats her cheeks. Just because Kurapika now knows that they were childhood friends and had sincerely apologized to her doesn't mean that she would just automatically go back to the way things were with him. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see him smiling at her and her blush deepens.

 _'_ _Ugh, what's wrong with my heart today…'_


End file.
